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Shortcrust Pastry substitute

Best substitute

Homemade shortcrust pastry

Use the same amount lines one 9-inch tart tin or tops one large pie as the shortcrust pastry you are replacing

Best for quiche and savoury tarts

Close match

The half-hour version, by hand or in a food processor.

Other shortcrust pastry substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Shortcrust Pastry with ratios

  1. 2Shop-bought block or ready-rolled shortcrust

    Close match

    Use the same amount

    Chilled or frozen supermarket shortcrust, which is the identical product.

    What changes
    Best for
    everything shortcrust is for, weeknight quiche, pies and tarts

    Not a substitute so much as the same ingredient. Let block pastry sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before rolling or it cracks; ready-rolled sheets should be unrolled cold and used immediately. Ready-rolled is thinner than most people roll by hand, so it browns faster and is slightly more prone to leaking. The only real difference from homemade is that supermarket versions often use palm oil or a butter-margarine blend, which browns a little less and tastes less rich.

  2. 3Puff pastry

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount

    Laminated pastry, widely available frozen, and a completely acceptable stand-in for savoury baking.

    What changes
    Best for
    quiche, savoury tarts and galettes, pie lids, sausage rolls

    Flakier, much richer and it tastes great, but it behaves differently in three ways you need to plan for. It rises, so weigh it down properly with baking beans when blind baking or the base will balloon under a quiche. It shrinks back down the sides of a deep tin instead of standing up straight, so use a shallow tin or a flat galette. And it is wrong for a neat sweet tart shell that needs crisp vertical walls. Blind bake it before adding anything wet.

  3. 4Crushed biscuit and butter base

    Taste and texture differ

    250 g crushed digestives or graham crackers + 100 to 125 g melted butter

    Press into the tin and bake 10 minutes at 180C / 350F, or just chill it hard.

    What changes
    Best for
    cheesecake, chilled and no-bake tarts, key lime pie, banoffee pie

    Faster than pastry, essentially foolproof, and often the better choice for a chilled dessert. Its limits are real: it cannot form a top crust or a pasty, it cannot survive a long bake with a wet filling in it, and it is sweeter and sandier than pastry rather than crisp and flaky. For anything baked more than about 25 minutes with liquid in it, use real pastry.

  4. 5Filo (phyllo) pastry, layered with butter

    Taste and texture differ

    Use 6 to 8 sheets for every 9-inch tin, brushed between layers

    Stack buttered sheets into the tin, letting the edges fall raggedly over the rim.

    What changes
    Best for
    savoury tarts and quiches, vegetable pies, lighter, lower-fat baking

    Shatteringly crisp, much lighter and far lower in fat than shortcrust, and it looks striking. But filo leaks: the sheets have seams and tears, and a liquid custard will find them. Brush the assembled shell with beaten egg and bake it 5 minutes before adding any filling to seal it, and even then avoid very juicy fruit fillings. It also goes soft within an hour of coming out of the oven, so serve it promptly.

  5. 6Crustless, or a potato or breadcrumb base

    Taste and texture differ

    1 cup breadcrumbs + 3 tbsp melted butter, or a layer of grated par-cooked potato

    The honest answer when you do not want to make pastry at all.

    What changes
    Best for
    crustless quiche and frittata, gluten-free eaters, weeknight cooking

    A crustless quiche baked in a well-buttered dish at 170C / 340F is a proper recipe, not a compromise, and it is lighter and quicker. What you give up is portability and the contrast of crisp against soft, so it eats more like a baked custard than a tart. A pressed breadcrumb or grated-potato layer gives you something to slice against and a little browning, but neither is crisp the way pastry is, and both go soft in the fridge.

What is Shortcrust Pastry?

Shortcrust Pastry is a plain, crumbly pastry of flour, cold fat and a little water in roughly a two-to-one flour-to-fat ratio, known in French as pate brisee or as pate sucree in its sweetened form, and its job is to give a pie, quiche, tart or pasty a sturdy short-textured case that holds a wet filling without puffing into layers.

Cooking tips

  • The ratio is what makes it shortcrust: half as much fat as flour by weight, and only just enough water to bring it together. Keep the butter and the water genuinely cold, and stop mixing the instant the dough clumps. Overworked shortcrust develops gluten, which makes it tough and makes it shrink away from the tin as it bakes.
  • Blind bake for any wet filling, and seal the base. Line the shell with paper and baking beans, 15 minutes at 200C / 400F, lift out the beans, then 5 minutes more. Brush the hot base with beaten egg and give it 2 further minutes. That egg seal is the single most effective defence against a soggy bottom and it works for every substitute on this list.
  • Half butter and half lard or shortening gives a shorter, flakier crust than all butter; all butter tastes better and browns more. Suet shortcrust, with a coarser crumb, is what makes a traditional steak pie lid.
  • For gluten-free shortcrust, use a plain gluten-free flour blend plus 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum per 250 g flour (skip the gum if the blend already contains it) and add an egg yolk plus a little extra water. It works genuinely well but has no gluten to hold it, so roll it between two sheets of baking paper and press any cracks together with your fingers once it is in the tin.
  • Shortcrust freezes better than almost anything else in baking. Freeze it as a flat wrapped disc for three months, or line the tin, freeze the whole shell, and blind bake it straight from frozen with no thawing at all, which actually reduces shrinkage.

Frequently asked questions

Is shortcrust pastry the same as pie crust?

Essentially yes. American pie crust, French pate brisee and British shortcrust are the same family: flour, cold fat, salt and a little water at roughly a two-to-one flour-to-fat ratio. The usual differences are the fat and the sugar. American recipes often use shortening or a butter-and-shortening mix, which gives a flakier and less flavourful crust, while British shortcrust is typically all butter. You can swap any of them for another one for one.

Can I use puff pastry instead of shortcrust?

Yes for savoury baking, with two adjustments. Blind bake it and weigh it down heavily with baking beans, because puff will rise into a dome under a quiche filling. And use a shallow tin, because puff shrinks down the sides of a deep one instead of holding its wall. For a sweet tart shell that needs crisp, straight, neat sides, puff is the wrong pastry and no technique fixes that.

Can I skip the pastry altogether?

For a quiche or a savoury custard tart, yes: bake it crustless in a buttered dish at a slightly lower temperature and it works properly. For anything that has to be picked up or that has a lid, such as a pasty, a covered pie or a sausage roll, no. There the pastry is the structure, and without a container there is no dish. A biscuit-crumb base covers chilled desserts but cannot do a wet baked filling or a top crust.

Why does my shortcrust pastry shrink in the tin?

Almost always one of three things. You worked the dough too much, so gluten developed and the pastry pulls back as it bakes. You did not rest it for at least 30 minutes in the fridge, so the gluten never relaxed. Or you stretched it to fit the tin instead of easing it in, and it snapped back in the oven. Lift and settle the pastry into the corners rather than pulling, and leave a little overhang to trim after baking.

What is the difference between shortcrust and sweet shortcrust?

Sweet shortcrust, or pate sucree, adds sugar and an egg yolk and uses much less water. The sugar and yolk make it more tender and biscuity, so it eats more like a shortbread than a crisp pastry, and it browns considerably faster, so watch it closely and drop your oven 10 degrees. Use plain shortcrust for savoury tarts and pies, and sweet shortcrust for fruit tarts, custard tarts and treacle tart.

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