Is a butter crust. I’ve tried them all – oil, shortening, butter, combo – for the fat portion of the crust and I simply prefer the taste and texture of an all-butter crust. At first, it seemed harder to work with but I’ve finally found my tried-and-true method. Of course, it involves my trusty KitchenAid stand mixer. For me, it’s much easier than using the food processor or doing it by hand with a pastry cutter. The key is to use super cold butter and icy water and to minimally handle the dough with your hands. I follow the technique detailed on eggbeater.typepad.com except I don’t freeze all my bowls and utensils. Her favorite pie crust recipe is here. I use the same ingredient but different proportions. My ideal flour to fat ratio is 1 ¼ cups flour to 1 stick of butter. Here is the full recipe:
Ingredients for one crust:
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose unbleached flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 stick of butter (equal to 4 oz or ½ cup)
- icy cold water
Method:
- In a cup with spout, fill with about ½ cup water and put in freezer.
- Cube butter and freeze for about 5 minutes.
- In stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
- Add cold, butter cubes and mix with flat beater attachment until butter is coarsely incorporated. It’s okay to still have small chunks of butter.
- Slowly add icy water while keeping the mixer on, just until the dough comes together.
- Using a flexible pastry scraper, transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.
- Roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin to desired thickness, between 1/8 and 1/4 inches. I prefer the thinner crust. Use the rolling pin to aid in transferring the dough to the pie plate. You can use the dough right away or refrigerate for a few days or freeze for up to a month. To store, wrap in plastic wrap, using the plastic wrap to squeeze and flatten the dough into a disc. Try to minimally handle the dough with your hands as you want to keep the dough as cold as possible, yet pliable. It gets easier with practice!
Pictured above is an apple, pear, and cranberry ‘rustic’ tart I made as a pre-Thanksgiving treat. The recipe and ‘rustic’ idea is from Simple Recipes. It’s such a gorgeous and tasty tart that I’ll be making again and again! To get the same look, I still baked my tart in a standard round pie plate as opposed to their more ‘rustic’ method and just folded the edges over. It was easier to keep the filling from spilling over as I formed the pie.
