PIE CRUST, MALLEABLE BROWN BUTTER TART SHELLS

That’s right! No rolling for this one. Best for loose bottom tart pans. Thank you, Cook’s Illustrated!

Ingredients
1 1/3 (6.66 oz) cups AP flour
1/4 cup (1.75 oz) sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (5 oz) unsalted butter (salted butter okay, too)
2 tablespoons water
Method
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.
Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-high heat, swirling saucepan, until foaming susides.  Cook, stirring and scraping bottom of saucepan with heatproof spatula, until milk solids are dark golden brown and butter has a nutty aroma–only 1-3 minutes. Remove saucepan  from heat and add water.
When bubbling subsides, transfer butter to the bowl with the flour and stir until well combined. When cool enough to handle, transfer dough to 1 full tart pan (9″) with removeable bottom, or for individual tarts, divide evenly between 6  individual tart pans with loose bottoms.
Use fingers to press dough evenly in the bottom and sides. Place the tart pan(s) on wire rack on sided-cookie sheet.
Bake at 350°F 25-30 minutes, rotating pan midway through baking. Tart shell will be golden brown.  Cool completely before filling.  Store baked shells at room temperature 24 hours or wrap for freezing. They are quite tender and will break without much effort. Fill with the following suggestion from Cooks Illustrated:Mascarpone white chocolate filling and top with fresh in season fruit for service.

Be sure to check out lemon curd cake and meringue tarts, using this tart shell recipe.