Shortbread cakes made from shortcrust pastry (French breeze) take second place after yeast. The secret of success lies in the availability of ingredients, ease of preparation and a wide range of confectionery products that can be created on its basis.
Shortbread dough got its name due to the high content of fats (oil, margarine), which when baked make it crumbly, like sand.
Varieties of cakes
Depending on the ingredients used and their quantity, the following types of sand baking are distinguished:
- Classic cake. It contains flour, sugar and butter.
- Cake on the egg yolks. Egg yolks are added to the classic composition. This gives baking good friability and friability.
- Korzh on sour cream. Replaces a half portion of butter. This recipe is less calorie. Gives the dough elasticity, flexibility, it is convenient to roll out. Such cake forms the basis of pies and juices.
- Cakes on mayonnaise. The sauce is used as an alternative to sour cream and completely replaces butter. The dough is malleable, and the finished product retains its sand properties.
What can be cooked from shortcrust pastry?
Sand cakes are used for cooking:
- open pies with sweet filling;
- brittle biscuits in silicone molds;
- desserts with jam;
- friable curd treats.
No less popular is the base without sugar. To create a hearty pastry for lunch, pies with meat, chicken with minced meat, cakes for mushroom casseroles are suitable.
Structure
The recipe for shortbread in the classic version involves the use of sugar, butter (can be replaced with margarine) and flour in a ratio of 1: 2: 3, respectively. Soda and baking powder are not added.
To give the baking an original taste and aroma, you can add a little vanilla, lemon or orange zest, grated chocolate, cocoa, cinnamon or chopped nuts into the dough.
The main components and additives are chopped with a knife to the state of crumbs or kneaded in a food processor with a special nozzle for the dough. You should touch it with your hands as little as possible, otherwise heating will occur from the warmth of your hands, and the recipe will be broken. The blank is placed in cling film and sent to the refrigerator for half an hour.
Benefit and harm
This is surprising, but shortcrust pastry cakes are a real storehouse of vitamins! It contains vitamins A, E, H, D, PP and B, as well as trace elements - potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, sodium, phosphorus, zinc and many others.
Not without a spoonful of tar - high-grade wheat flour has a large yield of gluten, which inhibits digestive processes, creates a feeling of heaviness in the stomach. Nutritionists recommend minimizing the use of shortcrust pastry due to the high calorie content (404 kcal per 100 grams, excluding impurities) and starch content.
According to the classical recipe, the energy value of cakes is 6.6 grams of protein, 21 of fat and 46.8 of carbohydrates.
The process of cooking and serving cake
The recipe for sand cake for the cake provides for strict adherence to the temperature regime when working with the dough. Kitchen utensils, ingredients and air should not be higher than +20 degrees Celsius.
The optimum baking temperature is 180-200 degrees. The indicator of readiness is the appearance of a characteristic golden color and drying of the liquid. Depending on the type of oven and the size of the workpiece, it may take 10 to 60 minutes to achieve the result.
It is interesting, but you can freeze the finished shortbread dough! It is enough to wrap it in cling film and send it to the freezer. For 2-3 months it will not lose its properties and will be ready for use immediately after defrosting.
Below are the popular recipes for shortbread cakes for homemade pastry masterpieces.
Sand Cheesecake Base
Delicious curd cake - raspberry, strawberry, chocolate, lemon, etc. Do you know what unites them all? Crispy sand base, which is the hallmark of this dish with American roots.
There is a recipe for making a cheesecake without a base. But nothing compares to the gentle crunch of shortcrust pastry with creamy filling!
The main ingredients:
- Wheat flour - 150 grams.
- Butter - 100 grams.
- Sugar - 30 grams.
- Chicken egg - 1 piece.
- Salt is on the tip of a knife.
Cooking process
To prepare the short cake for the cheesecake, sift the flour into the bowl of the mixer, add 100 grams of room temperature oil and sugar. Set the minimum speed, knead until smooth. Add a pinch of salt to the dough, so it will not be too fragile. Insert the egg at the very end. When the mass has gained elasticity, send it to the refrigerator for 2 hours.
After the specified time, the dough is ready to work - it can be rolled out, laid out in a form lined with parchment paper and sent to the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. The base for the cheesecake is ready! And you can go the other way. Instead of 100 grams of butter, add 200 grams. Stir with the rest of the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Put the dough immediately into the mold and send it to the oven preheated to 180 degrees. Wait until the oil begins to boil and acquires a characteristic brown tint. Remove the sand cake, cool to room temperature, send to the refrigerator for 3-4 hours - until the butter has hardened and the dough has set.
Sand cake with a layer of meringue
Multilayer sand cake with meringues - a synergy of black and white cakes, layers of jam and meringue cakes. The confectionery product turns out to be high and rather heavy, so it will satisfy the need for a dessert of a company of 8-10 people.
Before serving, sand cakes with meringues should be kept in the cold for 5-6 hours, so that the cake is soaked well.
List of ingredients
Sand cake:
- Premium flour - 500 grams.
- Butter - 300 grams.
- Egg yolks - 5 pieces.
- Cocoa - 80 grams.
- Baking powder - 1 teaspoon.
- Sugar - 200 grams.
- Jam (apple, plum) - 4 tablespoons.
- Sour cream (15-20% fat) - 100 grams.
Meringue cake:
- Egg whites - 5 pieces.
- Sugar - 150 grams.
- Walnuts - 50 grams.
Cream:
- Butter - 400 grams.
- Sugar - 300 grams.
- Purified water - 100 milliliters.
Meringue, cream, shortbread cake. Recipe with photo
To prepare a shortcrust pastry, thawed butter must be beaten with sugar until stable splendor. Add 1 yolk and 1 tablespoon of sour cream, continuing to whisk.
Gently mix the sifted flour and baking powder. Knead the dough.
The workpiece is divided into 4 equal parts. To do this, you can use a kitchen scale or separate visually equal lumps. Stir in cocoa in 2 parts. Send all the dough to the refrigerator, wrapping each of the lumps with cling film.
Place parchment paper in a detachable form. Put 1 part of the white dough from the bottom, evenly distributing to the edges. Apply a thin layer of jam. Lay the dough with cocoa on it. It should lie not in a layer, but in pieces. From the base, cut off pieces of 2 centimeters and evenly distribute them on the surface.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Send the filled form there. Bake for 20-25 minutes. With the remaining test, do the same.
For meringue cake, separate the proteins from the yolks and beat in lush foam for 5 minutes. 30-40 seconds before the completion of the process add sugar. Do not stop whipping.
Grind nuts in a coffee grinder or blender until flour. Add to proteins with sugar. Mix.
Put the dough in the form covered with paper. In the oven, set the temperature to 90 degrees and “dry” the cake for 2 hours until ready.
For cream, combine water and sugar, put on fire, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Beat soft butter with a mixer into a lush mass. Add a tablespoon to the cooled sugar syrup, beat.
It remains to collect sand cakes for the cake. Place the bottom chocolate side up. Lubricate with cream. Put walnut meringue on it. Lubricate with cream. The last layer is shortbread with chocolate side down.
From above and from the sides, grease the cake with the remaining cream and sprinkle generously with coconut.
Cake based on sponge-sand cakes
We bring to your attention a confectionery product of two types of cakes and three layers. In terms of taste and appearance, the cake will surprise the gourmet sweet tooth.
It will take 90 minutes to prepare and a basic set of ingredients.
For shortcake:
- Premium flour - 180 grams.
- Sugar - 70 grams.
- Margarine - 100 grams.
- Chicken egg - 1 piece.
For sponge cake:
- Flour - 100 grams.
- Cocoa - 1 tablespoon.
- Sugar - 80 grams.
- Egg - 8 pieces.
For interlayer and impregnation:
- Cherry Berries - 500 grams.
- Cherry juice - 100 milliliters.
- Starch - 10 grams.
- Sugar - 2 tablespoons.
- Cherry tincture - 60 grams.
- Shredded dark chocolate - 50 grams.
- Gelatin - 1 pack.
For creamy cream:
- Fat cream - 1 liter.
- Vanillin - a bag.
Cooking recommendations
For shortcake, mix soft margarine with flour, sugar and egg. Knead the dough thoroughly until smooth. Roll into a circle to fit the shape. Make a few punctures with a fork around the perimeter. Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes (until golden brown).
For sponge cake, beat the eggs in a strong, stable foam. Mix flour with cocoa. Gradually inject into the egg mixture. Knead the dough, gently knead with a spoon so as not to knock down the splendor created by the egg mass.
Pour into a split mold, bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Cut the finished cake with a knife into several parts.
For cream, beat the vanilla with cream until a thick homogeneous mass.
Cooking cherry soaks will take longer. Starch must be dissolved in the juice. Add to the mixture of cherries. You can use both fresh berries, after removing the seeds, and frozen. In the latter case, they should melt to room temperature.
Put the pot with starch, juice and cherries on the fire and cook for 10 minutes. Add gelatin. Dissolve it. Cool the jelly. Send in the refrigerator to thicken.
Add sugar to the cherry tincture. Soak each cake with the resulting syrup.
Making a cake
At the bottom of a large plate lay sand cake, spread jelly evenly on it. Cover with the first sponge cake. Lubricate generously with butter cream and pour on cherry jelly. Top with a second biscuit cake.
The top and sides of the biscuit-sand cakes should be densely covered with butter cream.
Decorate the top with cherries and sprinkle with chocolate chips (grate on a fine grater).
Place the finished product in a cold place for several hours for impregnation.