My Danish Kitchen

Mørdej – Shortcrust

Shortcrust dough is very quick and easy to make and it’s used for both sweet and savory dishes (pies, tarts and quiches). This particular dough has sugar in it, so I would reserve it for a sweet dish. The process I describe here is using a food processor, but if you don’t have a food processor, the dough can also be made simply by using your hands. If you choose this method, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs, working as quickly as possible to prevent the butter from heating up. Then add the egg to bring the dough together, careful not to over-work the dough. Hint: when I roll out the dough, I roll it out on a piece of cling wrap. It makes for easy lifting and moving of the rolled out dough.

Making Mørdej

Ingredients: (makes enough dough for a 9 or 11 inch pan – 23 or 28 cm)

300 grams all-purpose flour (10.5 oz)

175 grams butter, cold (6 oz)

75 grams confectioners sugar (2.6 0z)

1 egg

Directions:

Place flour, butter and confectioners sugar into a food processor and process until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg and pulse only until dough starts to come together, careful not to over-work dough. Place dough onto your work surface and press dough into a flattened disc. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Once ready to use, roll dough out to the desired thickness. Spray pan with baking spray and fit the dough against the bottom and sides of pan. Trim the dough even with the top of pan or fold dough into a border. Re-refrigerate dough for another 10-15 minutes before baking.

Baking time and temperature will depend on what you are filling the pie/tart with. Follow your recipe for baking time and temperature.

If you want to blind bake (pre-bake) the dough before filling it, preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Place parchment paper or foil over dough, fill with rice, beans or pie weights to prevent dough from bubbling up. Bake for 20 minutes, remove paper and weights and bake for another 3-5 minutes or until golden. Cool crust before filling.

Source: adapted from Kager til Kaffen