Pie Crust

The rules for making pie crust are exactly opposite of those for making bread. For example, all the ingredients need to be as cold as possible. Also, you want to try and knead the dough as little as possible because you don’t want any gluten forming.

After all the things I’ve learned about how to make good bread, it was fun to make pie crust and to try and do the exact opposite. So, I decided to share it with you guys to see what you think.

This recipe comes to us from this cookbook, which is my new favorite. I got it for my birthday and have loved it ever since.

Here are the ingredients that you will need:

1 cup butter

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

Start by cutting some butter up into small cubes and place in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Then dump the flour on top of the butter.

Use your hands to make sure each tiny square of butter is well coated with flour and that no butter squares are stuck together, and then place the bowl in the freezer.

Meanwhile, pour the vinegar into a large measuring cup and dissolve the salt in it. Then place the measuring cup in the freezer and let everything chill for about 10 minutes.

Remove the bowl from the freezer and using the paddle attachment mix the butter and flour together until it resembles coarse cornmeal.  

When the mixture reaches the coarse meal stage, keep the mixer on and slowly pour in the vinegar mixture.

Keep mixing until the dough forms a ball. It should only take a few minutes and you don’t want to over mix this part.

Dump the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface.

Divide the dough mass into two sections and then press each section into a disc shape. Try not to knead the dough.

Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before use. Or place in the freezer for use at a later time.