Working with Fragile Pastry Dough

Some pastry dough, especially that which contains a lot of butter (such as puff pastry or pâte sablée) or contains very little liquid (such as shortbread dough, which contains none), can be almost impossible to roll without it cracking. You can always rework the pastry dough by kneading it slightly with the heel of your hand, but you risk warming it and making it tough.

A better if not terribly elegant solution is to just patch the pastry dough here and there where it cracks. If the pastry dough completely falls apart, just press the pieces together into the pie or tart dish. Because fragile pastry dough will fall apart if you try to roll it up on the rolling pin, it’s better to fold it in half, move it over the tart dish, and unfold it. If the pastry dough is hard and brittle, don’t even fold it—just slide your splayed hands under the dough and quickly move it over the dish; if it’s soft, freeze it first.