There just aren’t very many ways to make pie crust. You can make the subtlest of tweaks but honestly, you rarely find enough of a difference in a good, everyday crust to change the taste and texture of sweet or savory pie. What we need is something that is consistent, dual purpose (sweet and savory) and keeps well for another day (make one for today, freeze the other and mark your ziplock bag).
It was fun to teach the eldest daughter this one and she nailed first, second and third times. We made a free standing tart (gallette), and a couple chicken pot pies.
Martha has one. My new friend Samin has one. Keller has one. This is the one you keep. You don’t need to look anywhere else. It works. You are welcome.
All- Butter Pie Dough – Pate Brisee
Makes 2, 9 or 10 inch pie crusts
2 1/4 cups (12 oz) AP Flour
1 T sugar
1 t kosher salt
8 oz chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup ice water
1 t white vinegar
Place all dry ingredients in your mixer and give it a spin for a minute or so. Freeze the bowl for 20 minutes. Chill your butter and ice water too.
After the brief freeze, start in incorporating the butter cubes and just a thin stream of vinegar and water (slowly incorporate). Spin on low just until dough barely holds together (looks shaggy).
Scoop out onto your counter and squeeze hard. If it crumbles, add a little more water but if it holds together, you are done.
If using all, roll into disk, flatten, and freeze for at least 2 hours. When ready to use roll it out and make into two if using, or cut in half, roll, and double wrap with plastic and clearly mark (you wouldn’t want this for pizza dough on accident), and put back into the freezer for another day. If using down the road, you will need to remove from freezer and allow to defrost in fridge overnight before you use it.