Pie Crusts (2 Flaky Varieties)

By á-29897

Ingredients

• For the Oat Pie Pastry:
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons sugar, or coconut sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon Real Salt
• 6 ounces whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose flour
• 4 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 to 3 tablespoons ice-cold water
• For the Cream Cheese Pie Dough:
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 1 (4-ounce) package cream cheese, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon sugar or coconut sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon Real Salt
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour

Details

Adapted from lettyskitchen.com

Preparation

Step 1

To be flaky, pie dough should follow the mantra cold, cold, cold. Be religious about the steps here to keep your dough cold.

1. Refrigerate the butter until the very last minute.

2. Make “ice-cold” water with ice cubes—just fish them out before measuring.


3. Work quickly to incorporate butter, and keep your warm hands away from the mixture until you quickly gather the dough into a disc.

4. Resist the urge to add more water. Work the dough gently picking up the dry pieces with the dough until it all comes together. You want to see some pieces of butter in the dough. (The Cream Cheese Dough recipe here is the exception, since the butter and cream cheese are beaten together.)

5. Chill the dough for an hour or so to let the dough relax and insure cold, cold, cold.

Make the Oat Pie Pastry:

Put the oats, sugar and salt in a food processor and process to a fine meal. Add the flour and process to mix.
Scatter the butter pieces over the dry ingredients. Pulse until the butter is broken into very small pieces, about the size of a pea.
In a small bowl, stir the yolk and 2 tablespoons of the water. Sprinkle over the flour. Pulse several times. Mix with a fork to insure that the ingredients are mixed well. Pulse again until the pastry just starts to gather in a mass. Dump into a bowl and gather everything together. Form into a disc about ¾-inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour or overnight.

Make the Cream Cheese Pie Dough;

Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until it is smooth. Add the cream cheese, sugar and salt. Beat well, stopping to scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl. Add the flour all at once, and mix just until the dough comes together. Gather the dough and form into a disk, about ¾-inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour or overnight.