I was amazed how good and flaky this pie crust is. I made it with my pumpkin pie recipe, and I couldn’t stop eating it. And I never liked pumpkin pie before!
- 1-1/2 cups (189 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1-1/4 sticks (142 grams) very cold (frozen is good) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces (*if you are using Kerrygold or other European or European-style butter, you don’t need the extra vegetable shortening.
- *1/6 cup (32grams) frozen vegetable shortening cut into tablespoon-sized pieces, or you can add this amount of butter
- About 1/4 cup ice water – have more on the ready just in case
- Egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water)
- Sugar for sprinkling
Instructions:
- There are many ways to cut the butter and shortening into the flour, but I prefer to use a combination of my Cuisinart and my hands. The Cuisinart breaks up the fat quickly, so there is less time for it to get warm. Put the butter in the machine in 3 parts and pulse 2-3 times. By the time you’ve added all of the butter, some of it will completely blended into the flour and some will be in large pea sized pieces. Add the ice water to the dough 3 tablespoons at a time and pulse just once to combine. If you pulse too much at this point you will continue to break down the butter too much.
- Once you’ve added all of the water pour the dough out onto the counter, or into a large flat bowl (pasta serving bowl works well). It may still need some water, so I like to do the rest by hand so that I don’t break down the butter too much.
- First try pressing the dough together to determine if it is too dry. If it isn’t holding together, or there is still powdery flour then add a couple more tablespoons of water and try pressing together again. The dough should come together without falling apart, but not be too mushy with water.
- Form the dough into disks and wrap well with plastic. See the whole pieces of butter in the dough, this is what you want to create the flakiness. Chill for at least 2 hours.
- Once the dough is chilled sprinkle flour onto your counter, a rollpat or a piece of heavy gauge vinyl. Roll the dough out from the center, adding a little flour and turning the dough a 1/4 turn to make sure it isn’t sticking too much to the surface. If you use a rollpat or vinyl you will use less flour.
- Make sure the dough will fit the pan you are using. There should be about 2 extra inches around the pie plate. Use your rolling pin to transfer the dough to the pie plate. Put the rolling pin in the middle of the dough and fold the dough over the pin to lift it.
- Place the dough in the pie plate, don’t force or stretch it or it will shrink away from the sides as it bakes.
- Place the pie shell into the freezer for about 15 minutes while the oven is preheating to 425 F. Freezing the dough will help to set the dough so that it won’t blow out your design when it goes in the oven
- Place pie pan on a sheet pan, cover edge with foil or protector, and blind bake until crust is lightly golden, and remove from oven, and remove pie weights.
- Return the crust to the oven. Bake until the bottom looks dry, another 5 minutes. If the pie will not be cooked again with the filling, bake for another few minutes until the edges of the crust have browned and the bottom is lightly golden. The bottom crust will puff a bit as it bakes, but will deflate again when you remove the pie from the oven.
