TIP
A great pie crust depends on how cold you keep your butter during the mixing process. That’s because you want the butter pieces to hold up while you’re mixing so there are little pieces by the time it goes in the oven. You don’t want the butter to completely mix in with the other ingredients. The reason is because when the little pieces of butter melt they evaporates and create little air pockets which make a light, flaky crust. If the butter is thoroughly mixed this won’t happen and all will be lost.
CRUST RECIPE
1 stick butter – chilled and diced
1-1/4 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
3-4 TBL ice water
STEPS
1. Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk them together.
2. Dice the stick of chilled butter into little pieces. Make sure the butter stays very cold!
3. Add the butter and half of the chilled water to the dry ingredients. Using your hands to mix the ingredients or a mixer with a paddle attachment by slowing pulsing everything very slowly. Add the rest of the water as needed until the dough comes together and form the dough into a disk.
4. If your butter got warm wrap it in plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge for a little. If you were quick, you can just start rolling it out.
5. Once the dough is in the pie pan cover the crust with parchment paper and fill it with dried beans and bake it in a 375 preheated oven for 15 minutes.
6. Let the crust kool for 15 minutes before adding your filling.
Kitchen & Cook 