It’s alarming how many recipes there are out there for something as simple as pie crust. Some involve complicated ratios of different types of flour, some involve food processors, and still others rely on–I’m not kidding–artisan butter. Let me save you the heartache of searching for the best recipe — this is it. It turns out that good pie crust is more about technique than ingredients, and you really don’t need any fancy equipment. This one’s from my pastry instructor at American River College, Teresa Urkofsky.
I make this recipe a couple of times each summer, so I always have pie crust ready to use in the freezer. I have a habit of buying too much fruit at the farmers markets, but with pie crust on hand it never goes to waste. I can throw a fruit pie together in no time.
This recipe is the one to use for blackberry pie and blueberry pie.
Pie Crust
(Makes crust for one 9-inch double-crusted pie.)
- 3 sticks of butter, cold (1.5 cups)
- 3.75 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 to 2/3 cup ice water
Cut the butter into pea-sized cubes, using the following method:
Slice each stick of butter into fourths length-wise, then rotate the butter 1/4 turn and cut into fourths length-wise again, then slice into 1/4-inch-thick slices cross-wise starting from one end. Transfer cubes onto a plate and freeze for 10 minutes to chill. (Here are my butter cubes, right, chillin’ on a plate in my freezer drawer.)
In a very large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and sugar thoroughly with a whisk. Remove the butter cubes from the freezer and mix them into the flour by hand, letting the flour coat each cube and being
careful not to mash the cubes or cream them into the flour. The cubes should remain as individual pieces in the flour, retaining their shape.
Whisk the eggs gently in a medium bowl. Pour about half of the ice water into the eggs and stir with a fork. With your hand or a spoon, make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the egg mixture into the hole. With both hands, work the egg mixture into the flour mixture, still being careful not to over-work the dough or mash
the butter pieces. Add more water as needed until the dough is crumbly but holds together when pinched.
Pour the crumbly dough onto a work surface, working in batches if necessary. A silicone baking mat (such as Silpat) works well for this — it’s nonstick and makes cleanup easy. Press the dough together with your hands, forming the dough into two equally sized mounds.
Press each piece of dough into a
flattened disc and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for later use, or freeze for up to two months. (Thaw overnight in the refrigerator when ready to use.)
Let each disc sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before attempting to roll it.
A note about working with butter: It may seem counter-intuitive not to blend the butter thoroughly into the dough. Indeed, plenty of novice bakers make the mistake of kneading their pie dough like bread dough, only to end up with a finished crust that is tough and flat. Why do we want whole chunks of butter in our pie dough? Here’s a bit of food chemistry for you: The whole pieces of butter get encased in the dough, surrounded by gooey flour. In the oven, the butter melts and releases a bit
of water. The water turns to steam which tries to escape, creating hundreds of tiny air pockets in the dough. These steam-created air pockets are exactly what give good pie crust its flaky, layered texture.
If you look closely, you’ll see in the picture above that the finished dough is still marbled with unbroken chunks of butter. I wasn’t being lazy–this is the desired effect.
A note about measuring flour: In baking, measuring by weight is the most accurate method. I use a simple kitchen scale, which measures to 1/10 of an ounce and cost about $14 at a home housewares store. If you don’t have a scale, measure dry ingredients by the scant cup, spooning gently into the measuring cup and leveling off with a knife. Consider this: A tightly packed cup of flour can weigh up to 7 ounces, while a properly filled cup should weigh no more than 4.5. That adds up to a pretty big margin of error in any pastry recipe.
