equivalencies american cups to metric

Can't help you with the butter.

Converting flour can be a real problem, because there are big differences depending on authority cited and how the "cup" was measured.

Most bread experts use 4.5 to 5 ounces as a cup equivalent. That would convert to from 126-140 grams. So the 140 gram figure you have is well within reason.

I agree with you that 100 grams sounds far too light. Working backwards, that would make a cup of flour weigh only 3.5 ounces.

KY said what there is to be said about flour.

Just like water, butter measurements translate across weight and volume. 8 ounces is 226.8 grams -- so, 225 is definitely close enough.

The ratio from the CIA book of nearly equal weights flour to butter will yield a very, very short crust indeed. It's certainly far richer than an ordinary pate brisee, which raises the question of what that particular tart is all about. Inquring minds want to know.

More normatively, and more metrically convenient, think about the vast majority of tart crusts in terms of twice the weight of flour to that of butter. Karen, I know you're something of a polyglot. If you have any French at all, try googling "recette de pate brisee sans oeuf;" and also "recette de pate brisee," most of which, unlike your recipe, will include oeufs -- or at least their jaunes. In either case, you'll find almost every recipe specifices your friend's 2 : 1 ratio for weight, and not volume. Pastry recipes seem a lot more definitive in French, if you know what I mean, and that ought to help your comfort level.

On the other hand, if you don't read French, just ignore the whole thing. What do they know about quiche anyway?

Hope this helps,
BDL

Well, whatever "Vapour" uses she uses; and I'm not about to say she's wrong even though her recipe doesn't seem like an ideal utility crust.

Of course there are a lot of variations for regular, "flaky" pie crusts, but there's also a middle of the road standard formula which works for nearly everything. You'll see it in nearly every recipe you look at. And that's 3 volumes of flour for every volume of fat. In terms of weight, that's roughly 1-1/2 weights of flour per 1 weight of fat -- whatever the units -- whether grams ounces or carats, it makes no difference. These flaky crusts aren't uniquely American, but they're more typical with us; so you'll more often see the measurements expressed in terms of volume than weight.

Tart (including quiche) doughs are made to stand alone outside of the shell, which requires them be tougher than an American pie. Consequently, there's almost always a relatively higher proportion of flour to fat than in those tender pie doughs. As we already established, that's roughly 2 flour per 1 fat by weight, and about 4 flour to 1 fat by volume.

When it comes to sweet tarts, there are other possibilities besides pate brisee. The sugar in pate sucree strengthens the structure even more relative to a pate brisee, and crispis it too. While the very high proportion of fat (something like Vapour's recipe) makes a pate sablee very tender and crumbly.

I'm not sure that you get better information by looking at French online resources, but they do tend to be a lot more consistent than those in English -- which gives you a strong sense of both the fountainhead and the mainstream.

BDL