A good pie crust will work with both sweet and savory dishes. Think quiche and apple pie. Both of these dishes need a hearty dough that won’t fall apart nor detract from the flavor of the filling. They have fancy names overseas such as shortcrust pastry or pâte brisée. Here in the good ole’ US of A, we call it “American flaky pie crust.” Sometimes we lack imagination…
The beauty of this recipe is it’s another 1, 2, 3 ratio. Water, Fat and Flour. Very similar to shortbread biscuits or cookies! It’s easy to remember if you call it shortcrust pastry as they have similar names. In fact, many will do a hybrid of the two and make a sweet pie crust for more bitter fillings.
I decided to show how to make this by hand since many don’t have a food processor or mixer. It’s much like making biscuits. I even accomplished making this with a bad shoulder and a cut finger (thanks, kitten for startling me this morning while slicing bread) on my good side. I am only including this tidbit to encourage you to try making pie crust. It’s super easy and if a person with one bad arm and one finger sticking up in the air can make it, so can you!
So now that you learned how to make the American Flaky Pie Crust, what will you put in its shell? Perhaps pumpkin pie?
How to Prepare Pie Crust for Baking
How to Prepare Pie Crust for Storage
To store, get a piece of parchment or wax paper. Once it’s large enough for your pie pan, roll it up onto the rolling pin. Place dough on parchment, leaving a gap on one end.. Fold down the gap. Gently roll up. You will want to cover it to prevent it from drying out. I use cling film. This can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen if wrapped again in aluminum foil for several months.
Flaky Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (226g) flour
- ½ cup (113g) butter, margarine, shortening or lard
- 2-3 tbs (30 – 45mL) water
- ¼ tsp (1g) salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, rub flour, salt and butter together with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs and no butter remaining is larger than the size of a pea.
- Add in water, one tablespoon at a time and squeeze dough together until it just starts to clump together and holds its shape, like wet sand.
- Form into a round disc and cover with cling film or store in an airtight container for 1/2 hour or overnight.
- Flour surface and rolling pin (if you don't have a rolling pin, you can use a drinking glass in a pinch.)
- Roll up and down, then turn 90 degrees (1/4 turn.) The turning keeps it in a round shape and prevents sticking to the counter.
- Repeat rolling up and down and turning until desired thickness.
To bake the crust
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C.)
- Drape dough onto a pie shell and press gently in place. Trim off excess.
- Prick the bottom with a fork.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 – 30 minutes to prevent shrinking.
- Crumble up a piece of parchment or aluminum foil and fill with rice.
- Bake 15 minutes, remove from oven and discard parchment and rice. Bake an additional 10 – 15 minutes until bottom is dry and crust is lightly golden brown.
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