Flaky Butter Crust
This is an easy go to recipe for pastry crust. This recipe makes two rounds or one round and some nice topping cut outs. Stores well, wrapped tightly, in the freezer to save time on busy holiday baking days or in a pinch when you want to make a quick week night dinner--quiche or pot pie?
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- pie pan
- food processor
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour all purpose
- 1 teaspoon sugar optional
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter 1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces COLD, cut into small cubes
- 3 tablespoons water or vodka ICE COLD
Instructions
- Add the flour, sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to blend. Open top and sprinkle butter pieces in evenly, around the blade. Pulse until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Pulse in water or vodka, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together and "rides" the top of the blade. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Pat into a disk and cut in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and flatten into a uniform disk. Chill for at least 15 minutes. This dough can be made a day or so ahead or frozen. Let dough sit out for a few minutes before beginning to roll out. When ready to roll out, place dough on a lightly floured surface. Begin with short, one direction strokes, pressing on the dough to soften. Turn dough a quarter turn after each stroke. Once dough is slightly pliable, start your strokes in the center of the dough, going one direction, up to 12 o'clock, back to center, down to 6 o'clock, center, up to 10 o'clock, center, up to 3 o'clock, center and so on, traveling like a star, outward to the edges of the dough. This helps the dough to expand evenly in all directions. Turn the dough a quarter round after each go round the clock until you are slightly larger than the size that you want or about 1/8" thickness. Flour your surface as needed during this process. Gently place in your pan and use the extra dough at the edges to tuck under for a rim. You can flute, pinch, or fork the edges as you like. Chill or freeze for at least 15 minutes. These shells can be wrapped and frozen as is to use later or fill and bake now according to your recipe. You can also blind bake at this point (empty shell). Blind bake for recipes where you don't need to bake your pie, such as a custard or cream pie. For blind baking, line chilled shell with foil or parchment paper. Fill shell with raw baking beans or top with another pie pan of same size. Bake in a preheated 375ยบ oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove pan or beans and paper or foil and bake an additional 5-7 minutes or until golden brown.