Pie dough. First of all, yum. However, I’ll admit, sometimes I let the thought of making pie dough from scratch intimidate me and cave to the ease of the store bought stuff. It’s really fine in a pinch but if you have a few minutes, this dough is so worth it. It really tastes so much better.
Here we go! Get some butter out and cut it into chunks. Put these in a bowl and throw it into the freezer for a few minutes. This keeps the butter super cold after you have cut it and before you start working it in. Cold is the name of the game for pie dough.
Next, sift some flour and salt together in a large bowl. Here’s a hot tip for measuring flour for baked goods. Weighing is my preferred way to get the correct amount of flour, but if you don’t have a scale or prefer to use measuring cups, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level off with the back of a butter knife. If you dip and scoop, the flour compresses and you often end up with too much flour and your baked goods can be dry and too heavy.
To get the perfect flaky and tender dough, the butter needs to be worked into the flour until pea sized crumbs begin to form. If it is not worked through enough, you get large chunks of butter that melt out of the dough and if it is worked in too much, the dough becomes tough. We want it right in the middle in that yummy sweet spot. There are a few ways to do this, I am going to go through two different methods.
Incorporating Butter into Flour Using a Pastry Cutter:
- Add cold butter to sifted flour and salt.
- Using a pastry cutter, begin to cut the butter into the flour.
- Repeat this until the dough has pea sized bits of butter and the dough resembles coarse crumbs.
Rubbing Butter into Flour using Hands (no tools needed):
- Add cold butter to sifted flour and salt.
* It is really important to use really cold butter here since your hands are going to warm the mixture. Sometimes, I will stick my flour and salt mixture into the freezer as well to keep the mixture even cooler. - Using your hands, massage the butter and flour between your fingers until pea sized bits of butter remain and the dough resembles coarse crumbs.
Now that the butter is incorporated into the flour, to form this dough we need to add some ice cold water a little bit at a time. Too much water will make the dough tough and all the work of getting the butter incorporated will be for not. So add the water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough just starts to come together. Work it and lightly knead it for a minute before assessing if more water is needed.
Next, gather the dough into a ball and form a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. You can also make this dough ahead and refrigerate for up to 24 hours, or freeze for up to 2 months. When you are ready, roll it out and use with your favorite filling. This recipe makes enough for one 9 inch pie, if you want a top and bottom crust for your delicious confection, double the recipe.
To Blind Bake Crust:
- Roll out dough and place in 9 inch pie dish.
- Place parchment paper over dough and fill with dry rice, dry beans, or ceramic baking beans.
- Bake at 425 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.