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RECIPE: No-Fuss Pie Pastry
- Yield: Makes 9-inch pie pastry 1x
Description
Please do not be intimidated by the prospect of making your own pie pastry! It’s simply just butter-infused flour with a bit of extra moisture to hold it all together. Avoid all of that extra packaging from store-bought, premade pie shells or frozen puff pastry and make this easy homemade dough, instead. The extra bit of effort goes a long way.
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 stick (8 Tbsps) cold butter, chunked
- 1 egg yolk
- 3 Tbsps (or more) ice water
Instructions
- Stir together the flour and salt in a large bowl or food processor. Cut the cold butter into chunks and add to the bowl along with the egg yolk. If working by hand, use your fingers to pinch the butter and yolk into the dough until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is blended into the flour. If using a food processor, pulse just until coarse crumbs are formed. At this point, it will look more like crumbs than a coherent dough.
- Next, work the cold water into the mixture either by barely pulsing it with the food processor or pinching it together with your fingers. The mixture should still be crumbly. Use damp hands to press the mixture into a disc. Wrap in wax paper and then plastic wrap, and chill for 2 hours or for up to 3 days. The dough can also be frozen.
- Once the dough is thoroughly chilled, roll it out on a floured work surface and set it in your desired vessel. If you can, press any overhang dough into the top of the pan as the pastry will shrink as it cooks. If you don't, that's okay too. I’ve poured the filling into a very shrunken crust and the results were absolutely delicious, so don’t worry. If the dough breaks or appears thin in any areas of the pan, press extra scraps into that section. It need not be perfect. Prick the bottom of the shell with a fork.
- Set the vessel with the pastry back in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to chill back up. (I’ve also skipped this step and the results were just fine.)
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cover the chilled pastry with parchment paper and then pie weights or dried beans. This is to keep it from puffing up too much. I’ve also skipped this step and while I wouldn’t recommend it, the results were just fine.
- Bake the shell, covered for about 20 minutes, uncover and continue baking for 10 more minutes or until just lightly browned.
Notes
Making flaky pastry: Working the butter into the flour is most important. This process can be done quickly in a food processor, but I prefer to do it by hand in a large glass bowl. The goal is to combine the flour and butter together while keeping the butter relatively intact and not creating too much gluten (by overworking). The key to optimizing this process is keeping everything cool and working fast.
Blind or partially baking: This firms up the shell enough to contain the filling, keeps the crust from getting soggy, and ensures everything cooks evenly. The dough can be rolled out and fit into a vessel of your choosing. I like to use a tart pan with a removable bottom for easy unmolding. I have these in many shapes and sizes; deep, wide and shallow, rectangular, as well as miniature for leftover bits of dough. A standard pie plate or casserole dish would work just as well.
