Pie Crust

Step away from the freezer isle. Do not get a frozen pie crust. Just don't. They're full of preservatives, the don't taste very good, and they're full of icky things like vegetable shortening just waiting to make your lipid bilayers inflexible. Plus, a from scratch pie crust is just so good. And so easy. Yes, I said easy.

This post will be your guide on how to make the most tender, flaky pie crust that will make everyone just die during that first bite of pie. And I do it without a food processor, so anyone can make their own pie crusts, no excuses.

To make a good pie crust, you have to be the pie crust, and really understand what's happening to you as you're being made. First of all, for a tender crust that doesn't shrink you want to avoid one thing: gluten. Yes, that wonderful protein that makes pizza crust just so good and chewy, will destroy your pie crust. This is why we add the vinegar into the mix, to help prevent the formation of gluten.The second thing is that you want little pieces of butter (fat) to be evenly distributed through your pie crust to allow for maximum flakiness. Finally, the dough needs to rest. In the refrigerator to be specific. The cold does two things: 1) relaxes any gluten that has formed (Darn Gluten!), and 2) hardens those wonderful little fat chunks so you need less flour (gluten!) when you're rolling out the crust.

In this recipe, we add fat in two steps. The first step is to effectively "water proof" the flour from absorbing too much liquid and then forming gluten. The second step is to evenly distribute our little fat bombs throughout the crust. Mmm.

The final thing to note about this recipe is that it keeps everything cold, all the time, a lot. So freeze your butter the night before, put your bowl in the freezer for a bit before you start. Turn up your air conditioning if you live less than 40 degrees of latitude from the equator, like I do, and its hot. :( It also helps to have things like marble rolling pins (thanks Grandma!) and stone counter tops, but I don't really think you have to have these things.

The Ultimate Pie Crust
adapted from my Grandmother and Rose Levy

Makes enough for a double crusted 9" pie.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Cake Flour
2 TBsp Sugar
4 1/2 oz full fat Cream Cheese
12 TBsp Butter
3 TBsp Heavy Cream
1 TBsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 tsp Baking Powder

Fine Crumbs

Add your flours, sugar, and baking powder into your frozen bowl, and place back in the freezer to chill. Once cold, add the cold cream cheese, and using a pastry cutter, cut in the cream cheese until the mixture is the texture of fine crumbs.

Big Butter

Next, add your frozen butter and cut it in just until everything is smaller than a pea. You will be very strong at the end of this process. Yay muscles. 

Pea Size Crumbs

Combined

Next add your cream and vinegar, stir to combine, and then use your hands to incorporate the dough until it just comes together. You must do this quickly, as your hands are warm. Do not kneed any longer than is absolutely necessary. The dough should still be cool at the end of this process.

Plastic Dough

Divide the dough in half, and wrap each half in plastic wrap, shape into a disc and refrigerate for at least and hour.











Using a light floured surface and rolling pin, roll each disc into a 11 inch diameter circle about 1/8th of an inch thick. Fold the circle in half, and half again to allow for easy transfer into your pie dish.

Unfold the dough and trim off the excess with a knife. Make a pretty design on the edges. I'm demonstrating a simple finger crimp here, but the opportunities are endless. Combine with your favorite pie recipe.

Maybe little pinch?

 

Another design made with two fingers of spacing.

But wait, there's more. What do you do with the extra dough that was trimmed off the edges? Why you make dough babies, of course. Simply recombine your dough scraps and roll them into a long shape. Add melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon in whatever amounts make you happy. Roll of the dough, and cut to form little dough baby nuggets

 

Before Oven

Oops.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 mins or until golden. Enjoy! We obviously enjoyed a little too much because by the time I remembered to actually take a picture, there were only two left. They're that good.