Flaky Butter Pie Crust

So, I gave you a recipe for a Peach Pie, but I didn’t give you the recipe for the pie crust, instead sending you off into cyberspace to use the recipe I do. Well, considering last night I made three (yes, three!) cherry pies, I figured before giving you the cherry pie recipe, I would give you my recipe and method of my pie crust. 

Now tell me, doesn’t that crust look amazing?! That is also all of the sneak peek you get of the cherry pies I made until I post them. Still, it’s beautiful golden brown, and look at those edges! By the way, I can absolutely brag about the edgings, because I didn’t do them! Paul did. Of course, when you are going to marry a Red Seal chef, he does know more than just cooking skills! I tried my hand at the same crust technique, and didn’t do nearly as well. Good thing I tried on the pie we are keeping!

Anyways, I will again give you the link to the original recipe here. The only difference between the recipes, is that I can get a double crust pie out of this crust recipe, and the Allrecipes version says it’s a single crust pie. If you roll it out nice and thin, you definitely can get a double crust from the recipe.

This pie crust recipe has never failed me, and Paul actually told me he considers it the best pie crust he’s ever had. I don’t know about that, but I do know it is extremely simple, with only four ingredients, and it is extremely tasty and, as the name implies, flaky.

I know the above picture doesn’t look too appetizing, but everything starts somewhere! Trust me on this, this pie crust is a winner!

 

Ingredients

Yield: 1 double crust pie

1¼ c. flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ c. butter, chilled and diced
¼ c. ice water

Fill a glass with ice and water, and store in the freezer until needed. In a medium size bowl, combine flour and salt and toss to blend. Using a pastry cutter, a stand mixer, or two knives, cut in the diced butter. (As a side note, make sure the butter is really cold! Our fridge keeps our butter nice and cold, but even throwing the butter in the freezer for 10 minutes or so is good too!) The mixture should resemble coarse sand, with the butter chunks no bigger than small peas. 

Take the ice water out of the freezer. Add in a tablespoon at a time (no more than that at one time!) to the flour mixture, and toss with a fork or mix in until well blended and starting to stick together. The mixture should form a ball. Usually, I use around 5-7 tablespoons of the ice water, but this amount can vary. Remember, you don’t want your dough too wet! The small increments of water help the dough to stick, and tossing it distributes the liquid throughout the dough.

When your dough is ready, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. If you are making pies that day, put in the freezer for 1 hour. I do this every time, because I never have time to make the dough in advance. If you pop the dough in the freezer for an hour, the butter gets a chance to re-harden and it makes the pie crust that much flakier when you roll it out. Never freeze for longer than an hour, unless you want to keep some pie dough in the freezer for the future. 

Roll out the dough nice and thin, large enough to fit a 9-inch pie plate with overhang all around. Trim off the excess, and then roll out for the top of the pie, and repeat the process, or cut into strips for a lattice crust.