The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.
Everyone should have a couple of portions of pie dough in the freezer. This neutral pie dough can be used for pot pie, quiche, buttermilk pie, fruit pies, savory empanadas, and little tartlets of all kinds.
If you’ve been reading my blog posts, you probably know by now that I have a major aversion to washing excess dishes. I also have limited counter space in my kitchen and digging my food processor out for projects is kind of a pain, so I am constantly seeking ways to minimize dishes and gadgets in my recipes.
I’ve been a professional chef for many years and I am always striving for efficiency gains in the kitchen by combining prep for multiple projects. As a general rule of thumb, if you’re going to make something, you might as well make a double or triple batch and freeze/store usable portions for next time. I make a double batch of this dough, which yields 8 pie tops/bottoms.
The secret to perfectly flakey buttery crust.
Flakiness in pie crust (or biscuits, croissants, etc) is created when you have distinct layers of butter (or other fat) between layers of dough. As the butter is heated, it releases steam between the layers of fat and dough, causing them to separate into flakes. To achieve this we:
- make sure the butter is very cold while working the dough
- leave the butter in fairly large pieces (pea- fava bean size),
- don’t overwork the dough
- create more layers by rolling out, folding/stacking and rolling out again several time.
Can you substitute butter for a different oil?
Sure. You can substitute butter for other solid-at-room-temperature fats (yes, all saturated fats here) like lard, coconut oil, duck fat and vegetable shortening and end up with a flakey crust. That being said, if you’re going for buttery flavor, nothing replaces the real thing.
Some of these other fats get pretty soupy at lower temperatures. For instance, coconut oil and duck fat start getting soft around 75 degrees. If substituting for these fats, you would need to take extra care to keep things very cold. Freeze instead of refrigerate the dough before working with it. Duck fat and lard are great in savory preparations, coconut oil is great for sweet or vegan dough. But butter is perfect for both sweet and savory. I like to make a big batch of versatile basic dough that I can use for all different kitchen projects so butter is always my first choice.
I never use Crisco or vegetable shortening. I just don’t understand it. How is vegetable oil solid at room temperature? I prefer less processed stuff. You can also make pie crust with liquid vegetable oils, and it might still be “good” but say goodbye to flakey or buttery.
Sweet and Savory Dough
For savory dough, omit the optional sugar or add just a pinch. You can also add other seasonings like grated parmesan cheese, black pepper, or spices. For sweet dough, I’ve seen recipes that go up to 2 Tablespoons for a batch this size.
That being said, I like to make a big batch dough to freeze that can be used in a pinch for both sweet and savory preparations. I also prefer less-sweet “sweets”. Never have I had a pie that wasn’t sweet enough for me and I believe that a sweet filling in a neutral pie crust is just right! I add 1/2 teaspoon salt (using salted butter) and 1/2 teaspoon sugar to my dough and use it for both sweet and savory dishes.
Other Ways to Mix the Dough
This method of mixing the dough by hand in a mixing bowl is pretty fast and uses the least amount of dishes. It does take some hand strength, especially if you’re making a double batch. It may take 5-10 minutes of rolling hard cold butter between your fingers. This may be difficult for kids, and for adults with arthritis. If you don’t like getting your hands goopy or find it too difficult to do this method there are several alternatives for step 4 in the recipe:
- Use a pastry blender
- Use a whisk in an up and down motion to smash/cut butter up
- Use a food processor. Pulse dry ingredients and butter until butter is about the size of a pea, then pulse in the cold water until the dough is just combined.
- Use the paddle attachment in a stand mixer.
- Grate frozen butter into your flour using the biggest holes of a box grater. The little end pieces that you can’t grate you can slice/chop with a knife.
Basic Pie Crust
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: n/a
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 2 pies with top and bottom crust 1x
- Category: pastry
- Method: mixing
- Cuisine: n/a
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This is a basic 3-2-1 Pie Dough. That’s 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part water (by weight not volume). What I love about this recipe/ratio is that it turns out really flakey. And it’s so easy to have memorized and whip up without thinking about it. You can make all sorts of variations by substituting up to about 30% of the flour for nut meals, cornmeal, and other types of flour like whole wheat or rye. Or add coco powder, spices, parmesan cheese, the possibilities are endless….
Ingredients
12 oz (2 1/4 cups) flour
8 oz (1 cup) cold salted butter
4 oz (1/2 cup) cold water
1/2 t salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar (or as much as 2 Tablespoons for a sweeter crust)
Instructions
1. Dice your butter as small as you can. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
2. Measure out your flour, salt and sugar. Sift these ingredients into the mixing bowl with the butter.
3. Cover and refrigerate these ingredients for 30 minutes or overnight. Refrigerate 1/2 cup of water as well.
Break up butter into pea or fava bean size pieces
4. With your hands, break up the butter into smaller pieces. The smaller you diced it the less work this will be here. You want the butter to be crumbled into chunks about the size of a pea or shelled fava bean.
Pour Cold Water into your flour-butter mix.
5. Add the chilled water. Work quickly with the dough to incorporate the water. You don’t want to overwork it, it will still be pretty crumbly.
After adding cold water, form it into a crumbly dough ball.
6. Compress the dough as much as you can. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
7. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into thirds and stack them. Roll out again into a rectangle. Repeat cutting, stacking, and rolling 3-5 times, working quickly.
Note: the dough will still be really crumbly when you start rolling it out and you’ll be tempted to add more water. After about the 3rd time rolling and cutting it will start to come together. Until then, just do your best to pile it together.
8. Cut the final rectangle into 4 pieces (or 8 pieces if making a double batch). Wrap and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Each piece makes a bottom or top of a pie, or a 9-inch tart so a single batch will yield 2 x 8-9 inch covered pies or 4 open pies or tarts.
Notes
I use salted butter and add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon sugar. I use this neutral crust for both sweet and savory dishes.
To substitute unsalted butter, I recommend adding an additional 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
First published in June of 2020.
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