When I first got married, I was shameful when it came to pies. My hubby LOVES cherry and strawberry rhubarb pie, so being the good wife I was, I decided to make him a pie. Well. It was a DISASTER! I nearly threw the pie dough across the room, I was so frustrated and could not get the darn thing to roll out, let alone stay in one piece!
My hubby lovingly took over and showed me a technique for rolling it out – which I promptly forgot and could never replicate.
Since then, I have tried NUMEROUS pie crust recipes, all to a big, fat fail. Until I stumbled across a few good BUTTER crust recipes. Oh.my.word. There’s just no going back to shortening.
Basic Pie Dough
(recipe also found here – makes 1 nine inch pie crust – double for top and bottom!)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons very cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons ice (or very cold) water
Combine flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor (or stand mixer with the paddle attachment).
Pulse or Mix to blend.
Add in butter and mix on medium speed (mixer) or low (processor) until the butter is cut into the flour and the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Mix in the cold water on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
Shape the dough into a ball (2 balls for a double recipe). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes plus (can also be frozen for 2 months).
Remove from fridge. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface.
Using your pie plate, measure to make sure you have a big enough round of dough to fit in your pan!
Here’s an easy trick I learned to move the dough from the counter-top to the pie plate without it falling apart of stretching out! When you’re ready for the transfer, roll the dough over the rolling pin.
Pick up the pin, place on the side of your pie plate, and unroll the dough! Trim the edges and crimp. Fill and bake as per your recipe.
