pie dough
In my opinion, the crust is what really makes or breaks a good pie. Most fillings are hard to truly mess up, but a flavorless, tough, or grainy crust can ruin an otherwise delicious pie. This is an all-butter dough recipe that's easy to roll out and manipulate, leading to crusts that are both beautiful and perfectly flaky.
Yield: One double or two single pie crusts
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
350g all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2.5 sticks unsalted butter, cubed
5 tbsp cold water
Kitchen Notes: Avoid handling this dough directly with your hands. You don't want to melt the butter, which is the key to a flaky finished product.
Instructions
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine 225g of flour with sugar and salt, and process for a few seconds to incorporate.
2. Add butter cubes and process until the dough begins to come together in clumps with no dry ingredients remaining, about 1 minute.
3. Spread the dough evenly around the bowl of the food processor using a rubber spatula.
4. Add remaining 125g flour and process until the dough is just broken up, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer dough to a large bowl.
6. Add water and use a rubber spatula to bring the dough together into a ball.
7. Divide ball in half and form into disks.
8. Wrap disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least two hours.
Credits: This recipe is adapted from J. Kenji López-Alt at Serious Eats, an absolute genius who has written extensively about the science of pie dough.
Most pie recipes call for a mix of butter and shortening or lard, but this all-butter version is my favorite for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it has great flavor without the greasiness that goes along with shortening. Second, it has the flakiest possible end product. The drawback is that it's more difficult to work with, because of butter's relatively low melting temperature, but following the advice below should make it easier, and all worthwhile in the end.
Timing and texture are everything once you have your ingredients in the food processor. When you add the butter, you don't want to over process it, or you'll end up with a crumbly short crust. Adding the flour in two different steps leads to a dough with two separate phases, which will automatically lend itself to a flaky crust.
Transfer your dough to a large mixing bowl before you add the water, because you'll want to use a rubber spatula rather than the food processor to bring it all together. Avoid the impulse to use your hands at this point. It's really important keep the butter as cold as possible, and using your hands will melt it and allow it to weep into the flour, which will lead to a tough crust.
Split your dough into two roughly equal parts and form into disks. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic and allow them to rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This step is important because it allows the butter to re-solidify, and also gives the gluten a chance to relax, which will make the dough a lot easier to roll out.