Pie Dough

Step 1

To make the pastry, mix the flour, salt and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter with two knives, a pastry blender or cool finger tips and blend until the mixture looks like uneven breadcrumbs with some pea sized pieces of butter. Don’t fully incorporate the butter into the flour mixture.

Step 2

Add 5 tablespoons of the ice water. Mix with the fingers of one hand (or with a fork if you have warm hands) until you get a shaggy dough—the dough should not have come together yet, but if you pinch it together it should hold its shape. If the dough seems too dry, add up to one additional tablespoon of cold water.

Step 3

Turn dough mixture out on the counter and, using the heel of your hand, push small bits of dough about 6 inches up the counter. You want to smear some of the butter into flat pieces— but not fully incorporate it into the flour. This step only takes a minute. You will only touch some of the dough. The goal is to leave shards of butter in distinct pieces. Steam is produced when the water in the butter melts and pushes the dough apart leaving pockets of air that result in a flaky crust.

Step 4

Mound the dough back together, scraping any bits off the counter, and press into a flat disk. (Form a square dough package if you are making a square tart.) You should see unincorporated pieces of butter in the dough.

Step 5

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. This is an important step, as it allows the water to passively, and evenly, hydrate the dough and also helps relax any gluten that may have developed while handling the dough.

Step 7

Flour your counter and rolling pin. Roll the dough from the middle out, in one motion, up to but not over the edge. Rotate the dough an 1/8 of a turn after each roll to prevent sticking and to keep it round. When the dough is 12” to 13” in circumference, roll it up around the rolling pin and gently unroll into pan. Lift the edge of the overhanging dough and tuck it tightly into the edges of the pie pan. There should be no space between the dough and pan. Trim the dough leaving an inch of overhang. Roll the dough under itself all the way around. Crimp the edges. Chill in the freezer until very cold, about 10 minutes.

Step 8

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the unbaked crust from the freezer, and line with parchment paper. Fill all the way to the top with pie weights (rice or lentils are the best). Bake for about 15 minutes. This is called “blind baking” because you can’t see what is happening under the parchment. When the exposed crust is golden brown, lift the parchment up slightly to see if the bottom crust is set and no longer looks wet. If it looks dry, remove parchment and weights and return to the oven until evenly golden brown.

Step 9

Adapted from the recipe we used at Tante Marie’s Cooking School (original source unknown)

Step 10

Notes:

Step 11

For a crust made with part whole wheat flour:

Step 12

5 oz (1 cup) unbleached white flour

Step 13

4 oz (2/3 cup) whole wheat pastry flour

Step 14

½ teaspoon salt

Step 15

2 Tablespoons sugar

Step 16

5 oz cold butter

Step 17

6 tablespoons ice water

Step 18

Or use all whole wheat pastry flour!