1,592 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 77 videos

Pre-calibrated pastry dough

When making pie dough (shortbread, shortcrust, sweet...), it's always a good idea to make a lot at once, and then divide it into pieces, which you can freeze.
I've already pointed out the mistake not to make, which is to form a ball before freezing.
It's difficult to roll out afterwards because the dough breaks up. Instead, form a large patty, which is much easier to roll out afterwards.

Another very practical method is to pre-roll the dough and then freeze it.

2,484 5/5 (4 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Pastry Dough Pie Rolling out Rolling pin

Last modified on: March 9^th 2026

For this post Comments Lasts posts Follow

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

As I said in the introduction, don't make a ball before freezing, but a large galette, although you can do even better with the pre-spread dough.

How does it work?

The principle is very simple: you make your dough, shortbread dough for example, you weigh the dough pieces and you form a galette with your fingers, as usual, it's afterwards that things change.

Place your galette on a sheet of baking paper.

Place a second sheet on top, and roll out as if you were going to make your tart immediately afterwards.

Note that this is very easy with soft dough that has just been kneaded, and that it doesn't stick thanks to the sheets of baking paper.

Here too, pastry rulers are handy for spreading evenly.

Once your dough is the right shape and thickness, you're done.

(don't forget to write the date and type of dough on the paper), you're going to put it directly into the freezer between its 2 sheets of paper.

What are the advantages of this method?

freezing and defrosting, due to the thinness of the dough, are very quick
The dough is protected by the 2 sheets of paper, so there's no need to wrap itYou
can take the dough disc out of the freezer, remove the 2 sheets of paper, and place it, still hard, on your tart tin, leaving it to defrost undisturbed
The dough discs take up very little space in the freezer, but on the other hand take up a lot of surface area, so you need a large enough freezer.

To sum up: to freeze pie dough very efficiently, you can pre-spread it between 2 sheets of baking paper and then freeze it with the papers.
The resulting disk of pastry is very convenient to use, thaws quickly and is already the right shape and thickness, making it easy to deep-freeze.

Lasts posts

With vinegar?

When you buy a jar of pickles labeled “in vinegar,” you’re looking for their tangy, crunchy flavor to go with cold cuts, sandwiches, or salads. You expect to find small gherkins preserved in vinegar, with salt and herbs, but is that really the case?
July 15^th 20261,2734.8

Congratulate the chef

You've just finished a meal that you really enjoyed. The server approaches with the usual question: “How was it?” And then, as a natural reflex, you simply reply, “Yes, it was very good.” However, when the meal was truly outstanding, this brief exchange deserves a little more. .
July 7^th 2026892 25

Cut twice as fast

When you need to cut something long into small pieces, for example chopped chives or the stem of a spring onion, there's a simple gesture that doubles your cutting speed. Let's see how.
May 21^th 20262,2175

The other use for bowl scraper

Your kitchen or bakery utensils may include a horn (left) or a pastry cutter (right). These practical utensils are normally used to scoop the contents of a bowl or salad bowl - the horn - or to cut dough - the pastry cutter. But they also have another, very practical use - let's see what it is.
May 9^th 20262,0293

The strange foam of potatoes in milk

As you may have already noticed, when you cook potatoes in milk, especially in small pieces (slices or cubes) for a gratin for example, a surprisingly abundant white foam forms on the surface. Where does it come from?
April 26^th 20262,3815

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

A tablet holder

Perhaps you too cook by consulting your recipe on a tablet or phone, and putting it down on your worktop? It's practical, but not the best solution. Here's a look at how you can make an inexpensive, almost universal stand.
March 14^th 20262,9235

A little leftover butter

Very often when you're making a cake, your recipe will tell you to melt some butter and mix it into the batter - a classic for cookies, cakes, moelleux and the like. And every time you do this, you'll have to butter the baking tin to prevent the dough from sticking during baking. Naturally,...
April 16^th 20262,4085

Who's making the croissants?

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 20252,759

Sugar syrups

In cooking, and especially in pastry, we often use sugar syrups, a simple mixture of water and sugar in varying proportions. Here is a presentation of their differences. .
January 17^th 202314 K4.8

In Praise of the Vegetable Mill

When a recipe or preparation calls for something solid to be pureed, as in a soup for example, the natural reflex is to take out the blender and plunge it into the saucepan. This works very well in most cases, but there are times when you'd like to puree something and at the same time remove the...
July 12^th 202313 K5