The Most Fantastic Tart Dough

This recipe is my go to tart dough recipe since I discovered it (thanks to David Leibovitz). It is so easy (not fussy) and so tasty I feel that I should commit it to memory. It all started because I wanted to make (and eat) a chocolate tart. David Leibovitz's website (Davidlebovitz.com) is one of my most dependable resources when it comes to desserts and ice cream. And there I found exactly what I was looking for. The chocolate tart filling he has is a bit too dark and rich for me (and I love DARK chocolate), but this french tart dough recipe is the best. 

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• 85g (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used canola)
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 160g (5.5oz, or 1 rounded cup) flour

Preheat the oven to 410º F (210º C).

1. Combine butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt in a medium sized pyrex bowl (or any other oven safe bowl, though pyrex is the best for seeing whether the butter has browned sufficiently). 

2. Place the bowl in the oven for 15 to 17 minutes. It is ready when the butter is bubbling and has just some brown around the edges.

3. Remove the bowl from oven, add the flour (it will sizzle!) and stir it in with a wooden spoon quickly. Keep stirring till the mess forms a ball which pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

4. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch (23 cm) tart mold with a removable bottom. Though the original recipe as stated by David Leibovitz says to spread it a bit with a spatula, I like to spread it quite a bit more, till it is around a 6 or 7 inch round. 

5. Once the dough is cool enough to handle, pat it into the shell with the heel of your and, and use your fingers to press it up the sides of the tart mold. If you are using it as a base for a recipe that will require further baking, reserve a small piece of dough, about the size of a raspberry, for patching any cracks. If it is to be used as base to be filled with pastry cream and fresh cut fruit, then there is no need to reserve any dough. 

6. Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork about ten times, then bake the tart shell in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown.

About patching: If tart comes out of the oven with sizable cracks, quickly roll bits of reserved dough gently between your fingers to soften and then wedge into the cracks. 

8. Let the shell cool before filling.

Note: I've noticed that butter with higher fat content yields tart with no cracks.