Killer Flaky Pie Crust

Just in time for Turkey Day...

Pie. Mmm. At Casa Dandelion, we love pie. For the past several years, our Thanksgiving feast pie count has rapidly been approaching the 1-pie-per-guest mark. We like to call it Piesgiving.

Everyone thinks homemade pie crust is really fussy and difficult, but it's not. The recipe I'm sharing is super easy-- thanks to the humble food processor. What pie dough wants in life is to be really cold all the time until it goes into a hot oven. You also don't want to develop the gulten in the flour from over-processing or over-handling the dough. Otherwise you will get a tough, rubbery crust. The food processor, fitted with the chopping blade, is the perfect solution because it does all the work and doesn't add heat to the process.

Following the instructions below for a basic pate brisee (which is French for "flaky, buttery goodness), you will achieve that perfect melt-in-your mouth flaky pastry and you can be the star of your own personal Piesgiving.

What you need:

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

2 sticks of unsalted butter (NOT margarine, NOT shortening. BUTTER)

1 tsp coarse salt

About ¼ cup of ice water

A food processor

Waxed paper or parchment paper

A large freezer zipper-top bag

What to do:

1. Put the butter and the flour in the freezer. Go find something else to do for at least 1 hour. Everything needs to be extremely cold for the crust to turn out correctly.
2. Take the butter out of the freezer. Cut it into chunks and put it in the food processor.
3. Add the salt and flour to the food processor. Pulse until everything looks like cornmeal, about 8-12 times.
4. Sprinkle the ¼ cup of ICE water over the flour mixture. Pulse about 8 times. At this point, if you can pack the mixture together like a snowball, it’s done. If not, add more water about ½ tablespoon at a time and pulse a couple of times until it starts to clump together and you can get it packed into a ball.
5. With the absolute minimum possible amount of handling, divide the dough into 2 equal sized balls. The warmth of your hands will melt the butter, and you want to avoid this as much as possible. Flatten each ball into a disk about ¾ inch thick. Spend a little time and care getting the edges smooth by rolling the disk on its end like a wheel. This will help the edges not crack when you are rolling out the crust later. The rule, however, is the less you handle it, the better.
6. Wrap each disk in a sheet of parchment paper or waxed paper and place in the freezer bag.
7. Refrigerate several hours or overnight before rolling out the crust(s). You can keep the crusts in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let them stand on the countertop for about 20 min before rolling out from frozen.
8. Roll out to desired size and thickness and use according to your favorite pie recipe. Makes enough for 2 1-crust pies or 1 double crust pie.