The recipe makes enough dough for either a two-crust pie (top and bottom crusts) or two single-crust pies (just bottom crusts). If you only require one, you can make half the recipe in the small bowl of a food processor or using a handheld pastry blender.
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes, chilled in the freezer for 20 minutes
½ cup ice water, plus more as needed
In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt until incorporated, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and pulse until incorporated but still with lots of visible pea-size pieces, 10 to 15 pulses (make sure not to overprocess). Add ¼ cup of the ice water and pulse the dough, then add the remaining ¼ cup water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, until the dough just comes together and small pieces of butter are still visible; be careful not to overwork the dough. Divide the dough in half and form each half into a 5 × 1-inch disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before using.
At the heart of every great pie is a great crust. I wanted mine to work in a variety of recipes, be a snap to make, and be easy to work with. This one fits the bill on all counts! My recipe, adapted from one I found in Gourmet magazine many years ago, is a wonder of flakiness and versatility. Once you make it a couple of times, you’ll practically have the recipe committed to memory. Here are just a few things to remember:
Cold butter counts! It helps maintain the structure of the dough when it bakes, yielding that characteristic flakiness.
Don’t overwork the dough. Processing or kneading too much activates gluten, which makes the dough tough. Follow the instructions closely, making sure not to overdo it.
Look for the lumps. When pulsing the butter into the flour, make sure to leave those pea-size pieces of butter in the mix; when rolled out, they create thin sheets of fat that separate the layers of dough, making a super-flaky crust.
Protecting the edges. Many things can impact how quickly a pie crust browns—especially on its fragile edges. Everything from rack position to the type of filling in the pie can cause the crust to brown too quickly; you can protect your pie by folding aluminum foil over the crust’s edges. There are even handy plastic or metal crust “shields” that you can buy for a few dollars, which simply lie over the top of your crust.
Blind baking the crust. When serving a cold pie, such as one filled with lemon curd or pudding, prebaking (or “blind baking”) the crust helps ensure that the crust on your finished dessert is fully baked and flaky through and through.
To blind bake, preheat the oven to 375°F.
On a lightly floured surface using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough, rotating and carefully flipping the dough, sprinkling flour lightly on the dough as needed, until you have a 12-inch round (the dough should be smooth and not sticky). Carefully roll the dough back over the rolling pin and drape it over a 9-inch glass pie pan, gently guiding the dough into the plate. Trim the dough, leaving a ½-inch overhang all around the pie pan. Tuck the overhang underneath itself and use a fork or your fingers to crimp the edges. Using a fork, prick holes in the surface of the dough. Fit a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper into the pie shell, making sure to cover the bottom and side and fill it with dried beans, uncooked rice, or pie weights to prevent the dough from puffing while baking. Bake until the edges begin to set, 15 minutes. Remove the foil or parchment with the weights and bake until the crust is set and golden, 10 minutes more. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely.
Use a pastry blender. If you don’t have, or feel like using, a food processor, this handheld device, with a thick handle and a curved series of blades underneath—allows you to make pie dough in a few quick motions. To do so, follow the instructions for food processor use, but where it calls for pulsing, use the pastry blender to incorporate the ingredients by hand.