Enter your flour weight, pick a pastry type, and get the fat, sugar and liquid amounts — in grams, kilograms, ounces or pounds. Sweet Crust (pâte sucrée) adds a sugar percentage for a tender, biscuit-like tart shell.
Like bread's baker's percentage, pastry ratios express fat and liquid as a percentage of flour weight, so the same formula scales from a small batch to a large one. What changes between pastry types isn't the method of calculation, but which percentages are used — and that difference comes down to how much the fat is meant to limit gluten development.
Rough puff and flaky pastry use the most fat (around 75% of flour weight) because the goal is distinct, visible layers of fat between thin sheets of dough — that's what puffs and flakes apart in the oven. Shortcrust sits at half fat to flour by weight, giving a "short," crumbly texture without the layering. Scones use the least fat (around 25%) because they rely on a raising agent and a wetter dough to rise, rather than fat-created layers.
Liquid follows the opposite pattern for a different reason: shortcrust and rough puff only need enough cold liquid (12–15% of flour weight) to bring the dough together, while scones need much more (55–65%) because that liquid is what activates the raising agent and gives the dough enough structure to rise properly.
Fat coats flour proteins and limits gluten development, so more fat means a more tender, crumblier result. Scones use the least fat (around 25%) because they need enough structure to rise; shortcrust uses half fat to flour by weight for a short, crumbly texture; rough puff uses the most (around 75%) so the fat can create distinct flaky layers.
Shortcrust and rough puff only need enough cold liquid to bring the dough together, since their texture comes from the fat, not the liquid — hence a low 12–15% ratio. Scones rely on the liquid to activate the raising agent and hydrate the flour to rise, so they use a much higher ratio, typically 55–65%.
Cold fat stays in solid pieces rather than melting into the flour, and those solid pieces are what create the flaky, layered texture as they melt in the oven and release steam. Fat that warms up and blends in fully before baking produces a denser, less flaky result — which is why chilled butter, cold water and even a brief fridge rest before baking are standard advice.
Flour brands absorb liquid differently depending on their protein and moisture content, and humidity in your kitchen changes how much the flour needs on any given day. Treat the calculated liquid amount as a strong starting point and add the last small amount gradually, stopping as soon as the dough just comes together.
Sweet Crust adds a meaningful sugar percentage — typically around a quarter of the flour weight — for a tender, biscuit-like tart shell rather than a savoury one. It usually swaps plain water for egg yolk as the liquid, which adds richness, helps bind the extra sugar, and gives the baked shell a slightly sandier, more delicate texture than shortcrust. It's the standard base for sweet tarts like lemon tart or fruit tarts.
