Jul 262018

Easy Peasy Pie Crust

Easy Peasy Pie Crust

Let’s talk pie crust… It’s not hard people but you do need to pay attention to the instructions to get a nice flaky crust. No dense or mushy pies!! Yick!

Also, baking is not CLEAN! 

There’s flour everywhere, chunks of pie dough that you cut away, sometimes you don’t use enough flour on your rolling pin and it gets stuck… Just let your inner child have some fun! This is not serious… This is pie. Your OCD tendencies can wait until it’s clean up time!

 

Easy Peasy Pie Crust

Yields: 2 pie crusts

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups (325 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar, optional
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) frozen unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 4 to 8 tablespoons ice water

Instructions:

  • Add 1 1/2 cups flour, salt and sugar (optional) to a medium bowl. Stir 2 to 3 times until combined.
  • Scatter butter cubes over flour and mix briefly with a fork or spatula to coat the butter with flour.
  • Cut the butter into the flour with a hand mixer (or fork if that works for you), working mixture until the flour has a coarse, mealy texture similar to fresh bread crumbs with pea-sized lumps. About 1 – 2 minutes.
  • Add remaining 1 cup of flour. Work butter and flour with the pastry blender until flour is evenly distributed. About 20 seconds. (Dough should look crumbly with pea-sized pieces).
  • Add 4 tablespoons of ice water into the mixture one tablespoon at a time. Using a rubber spatula, press the dough into itself. The crumbs should begin to form larger clusters. If you pinch some of the dough and it holds together, it’s ready. If the dough falls apart, add 2 to 4 more tablespoons of water and continue to press until dough comes together.
  • Remove dough from bowl and place in a mound on a clean surface. Work the dough just enough to form a ball. Cut ball in half then form each half into discs. Wrap each disc with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 2 days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months (just thaw it overnight in the fridge before using).

ROLLING OUT DOUGH

    • Remove one of the dough discs from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes.
    • Lightly flour work surface, top of the dough and rolling pin. Then use the rolling pin to roll out dough to a 12-inch circle (about 1/8-inch thick). The thickness of dough can vary depending on the filling you’ll be using so check the filling recipe you’re using.
    • Check for size by inverting pie dish over dough round. Look for a 1-inch edge around the pie dish. To transfer dough to the dish, fold dough in half then drape over the rolling pin.
    • Gently press dough down into the dish so that it lines the bottom and sides of the dish. (Be careful not to pull or stretch the dough). Then, use a knife or pair of kitchen scissors to trim dough to within 1/2-inch of the edge of the dish.
    • Fold edge of dough underneath itself so that it creates a thicker, 1/4-inch border that rests on the lip of the dish. Then, crimp edges by pressing the pointer finger of one hand against the edge of the dough from the inside of the dish while gently pressing with two knuckles of the other hand from the outside. Refrigerate dough at least 20 minutes or freeze for 5 minutes before baking.
      • *If making a double crust pie, do not crimp edges yet. Roll out second dough disc, fill pie then top with second dough round. Trim the edges then crimp.
    • Then add your filling and bake according to the recipe that you’re using!

Cheers!