All-Butter Pie Crust
All-Butter Pie Crust
(4)
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| quick-n-easy | |
| Hands-on time: | |
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| Total time: | |
| Yield: | 2 single crusts or 1 double crust |
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Perfect Pastry Blend
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 tablespoons, 8 ounces) unsalted butter*
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
- *If you use salted butter, reduce the salt in the recipe to 1/2 teaspoon.
Directions
1) Whisk together the flour and salt.
2) Dice the butter into small cubes, or cut it into pats. Work it into the flour until it's well-distributed, but not fully incorporated. Larger, pea-sized pieces of butter will be scattered throughout the mixture.
3) Tossing with a fork or your fingers, drizzle in the ice water. Stop adding water when the dough starts to come together, and grab it in your hands. If it holds together easily, without crumbling, it's ready. If it has dry spots, or pieces break off easily, add a bit more water until it's totally cohesive.
4) Gather the dough into a ball, and divide it in half. Gently pat/shape each half into a rough disk. Roll immediately, if desired. For better texture, chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling. If dough has been refrigerated longer than 30 minutes, allow it to warm at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes, until it rolls easily.
Yield: pastry for 1 double crust pie or 2 single crust pies.
Reviews
04/12/2012- Easy to make and worked perfect! I used this recipe for mini strawberry-rhubarb pies and they turned out great! The dough was nice and flakey, not tough, and the flavor was great!
04/08/2012- Clearly I did something very wrong here. I cut the butter (1 cup. Really, KAF?)
Into tiny little cubes. I made sure the water was ice cold. I blended the butter into the white whole wheat flour, mixed it and chilled for 30 minutes. Then I divided it, rolled one crust out for my strawberry pie, and baked it. It was so greasy that it slumped down into the pan and ended up so un-flaky that I was disappointed. What did I do wrong? I love your products....just not this one yet!
It sounds like when you rolled the crust, it may have warmed up too much before you put it into the oven. Sometimes, in that case, it would be necessary to chill the shaped crust again before baking. The colder, the better. ~Amy
- 03/24/2012
- Have tried many pie crusts recipes and while the KAF guaranteed recipe using both butter and shortening never fails, this recipe wins for flavor! While I am partial to the Perfect Pastry Flour over AP, either or a mix of both will yield a tender crust that rolls readily. This recipe is similar to that on the bag of PPF, minus the buttermilk powder- what would the addition of buttermilk powder provide?
Buttermilk will add tang to the flavor and tenderize the gluten. ~Amy
- 01/12/2012
- Pie crusts are the only baking thing I don't feel comfortable making. I don't know why but I've only had success once or twice with pie crust recipes from all over the place. I've tried the finest quality lard, shortening, butter, special pastry flour, food processors, pastry cutters, forks...you name it... I've tried it. So when it was time to make pot pies from my leftover roast chicken, and I looked in my freezer and saw no boxed pie crusts I panicked, then hit the KAF website, and tried this, the first ever all-butter crust I've ever made.
I made a double batch of this pie crust (I know making a double batch isn't recommended, but I was short on time) using my mixer and the whisk attachment to blend the cut-up butter, AP flour and salt, then tossed the water in by hand, divided it into four crusts and chilled it while I made the pot pie's guts. It rolled smoothly (I think I should've let it chill a bit longer, but time was a concern) between sheets of waxed paper, and then eased nicely into my pie plates, where one went pow into the freezer and the other went into the oven. It baked up flaky, crusty, and with a texture somewhere between a normal pie crust and shortbread, with a puff pastry-like appearance on the top (not as puffy, but puffier than pie crust usually is.)
Usually the pie crust in a pot pie is a sort of neutral background, if it looks nice, and doesn't taste *bad,* it's sort of the thing you forget about...not this time. My family raved, and I think this might be the one for pot pies from now on. Bye-Bye box!
My only concern, and I don't know if I'd call it a concern, was that I roll my pot pie pie crusts a lot thicker than I'd do a fruit pie, and I ended up with a large amount of trimmings. I think that for a 9 inch, non-deep dish, double-crust pie I'd probably scale the recipe down to maybe 3/4 the volume.
I am so glad to hear that you found success with this recipe and that you will be bypassing the pre-made crusts at the grocery store. ~Amy
