Tender Pie Crust

By Addie

When making pie crusts, it is important to use all-purpose flour for a tender crust. Also, sugar sweetens and tenderizes the dough, while the flavor of the dough can be enhanced by spices such as nutmeg, ginger or cinnamon. For easier rolling, chill dough at least 1 hour wrapped in plastic wrap.

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tbsps sugar
• 1 3/4 tsps salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsps chilled, unsalted butter, cubed 1/2-inch
• 8 tbsps ice water
• 1 1/2 tsps apple cider vinegar

Details

Adapted from keyingredient.com

Preparation

Step 1

In a food processor, blend flour, sugar and salt. Add butter, using on/off turns, and process until a coarse meal forms.

Add ice water and cider vinegar. Blend until moist clumps form, adding ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is too dry.

Gather dough together and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide dough in half. Form each half into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap disks separately in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

NOTE: This dough can be made ahead of time. It will keep up to 2 days in the refrigerator or 1 month frozen in a plastic zipper bag. If freezing, refrigerate overnight to thaw prior to using. Allow it to soften at room temperature before rolling out.

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Yield: Makes 2 dough disks (enough for 2 nine-inch pie crusts)



Based on a classic pâte brisée, the buttery French pastry dough used for making pies and tarts, this pie crust dough is easy to work with and wonderfully versatile.

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REVIEWS:

Best pie crust I've made, except when I pre-baked it I didn't follow any of the previous commenters' advice about freezing it first or filling it with beans or pie weights and it shrank a lot. For my purposes this time, that was fine, but I will follow the advice in the future. Since I was making a savory pie I just used a teaspoon of sugar.

I have been using this recipe for pie crust for about two years. It is flawless. The crust is flavourful and very flaky indeed. There is a constant debate among people that prefer an all-butter pie vs people that prefer 50% butter and 50% lard. The brilliance of this recipe is in the fact that it delivers the advantages of both methods. Using exclusively butter, the crust is rich and flavorful. At the same time, thanks to the addition of vinegar, the crust is also flaky. The best of both worlds!

Very flaky and crisp, crunchy. Surprising, unusual, but delicious.

I agree with the majority of the rest of the users on about two things. One: This pie crust is delicious. It is made from all butter and is extremely flaky. Two: This pie crust is easy to make. However, this pie crust is more of a croissant than a pie crust, I believe. I tried to make this pie crust to collaborate with a sweet potato pie, and it did not work out very well. Instead of a crispy and hearty crust, I got flaky and undercooked. This recipe would have been amazing had it included instructions for a Pre-Bake. (Although a previous reviewer posted those) I found that when I did pre bake the crust, the edges burned easily and there were many bubbles at the bottom. Although, beacuse of this, I cannot give this crust 4 stars. ALl in all, good recipe. Here are The Pre-Bake instructions: Though I would suggest brushing the bottom and edges of the crust with butter to reduce the burning, Because THIS CRUST BURNS EASILY. Pre Bake Directions (from friscokitchen/Dallas,TX): Transfer the rolled-out dough to 9- inch-diameter glass pie dish. Fold edges under and crimp decoratively. Freeze crust 20 minutes. Position oven rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line crust with nonstick foil and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until crust is set, about 20 minutes. Gently remove foil and beans. Return crust to oven and bake until partially cooked and golden brown around edges, pressing down on crust with back of spoon if bubbles form, about 15 minutes. Cool crust on rack". (Then add the filling and finish baking following the recipe for whatever pie you're making.)

This is a wonderful pie crust! It`s easy, tender and flaky. My search for the perfect crust is over!

Easy to make! Since I don't usually buy shortening and prefer butter, this recipe is great. Also, since i don't have a food processor, I coarsely grate the frozen butter cube (per Cook's Illustrated tip). Some modifications that have worked for me: use all whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose and use just 2 sticks (1 cup) of butter instead of the 2-1/4 sticks.

This pie dough was outstanding! It was flaky, and tasty. I kept the measured apple cider vinegar floating in the ice water. I rubbed the butter in and kept the pieces larger, to ensure it would be flaky. It will be in my recipe box forever.

Surprised at how easy this crust was, considering I'd never made one before. It was a little salty but with the pie I made it worked really well, maybe next time I'll use just a little less salt and a little more sugar (I like my crusts on the sweeter side). Will definitely make it again!

I'm not very experienced with pie crust at all, but I think this one turned out to be PERFECT! It was delicious, and extremely easy to work with. I didn't know whether or not to pre-bake this at first, but I looked for some pre-baking instructions on this site from another recipe, and I just used those directions (shown below) after rolling out this dough. I'm sure that the whole crust pre-baking part is obvious to more experienced bakers, but I definitely needed these additional instructions after rolling out this dough and before pouring in the pumpkin pie filling, so maybe it will be helful to someone else too! :) "Transfer the rolled-out dough to 9- inch-diameter glass pie dish. Fold edges under and crimp decoratively. Freeze crust 20 minutes. Position oven rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line crust with nonstick foil and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until crust is set, about 20 minutes. Gently remove foil and beans. Return crust to oven and bake until partially cooked and golden brown around edges, pressing down on crust with back of spoon if bubbles form, about 15 minutes. Cool crust on rack". (Then add the filling and finish baking following the recipe for whatever pie you're making.)

I just used this crust for my Thanksgiving pies. It is the BEST crust I have ever made. It's now in my recipe box forever.

Okay. This time I had success! I made an apple pie this time. The dough is very easy to work with. I had a perfect, flaky buttery crust. Rave reviews from my guests followed.

I made this pie crust for the Double Apple Pie recipe on this site instead of the one it called for as I really wanted it to be pure french - all butter/ This recipe is easy, as another baker mentioned, a little more water is required, but given that I made it in the winter, not unexpected - with summer's humidity it may not be necessary. Lovely results, nice texture, good flakiness. Will definitely make again.

I think my oven was reporting a temperature lower than it said it was. But--had it baked properly, I'm certain this would have been an extremely tasty pie crust. The sides definitely were very flaky and crusty.

I made this pie crust for the Double Apple Pie recipe on this site instead of the one it called for as I really wanted it to be pure french - all butter/ This recipe is easy, as another baker mentioned, a little more water is required, but given that I made it in the winter, not unexpected - with summer's humidity it may not be necessary. Lovely results, nice texture, good flakiness. Will definitely make again.

This crust was amazingly easy to work with and had a great texture and flavor when baked. For my kitchen I ended up adding another tablespoon of water to the dough and it came together beautifully. I highly recommend this crust!

For a while I was making the Cook's Illustrated crust that included crisco. Since trying this one I haven't gone back, I really prefer the buttery flavor. For the top crust, instead of a lattice as many recipes call for, I just roll it out thin and then lay it over, cutting a few round holes. Coat with egg yolk & water and then sprinkle sugar over it.

This one is the best! I will never buy store bought crust again. This is so much better than ready made crusts. Delicious! Flaky, buttery, wonderful. I made this crust for a chicken pot pie -recipe on this site- and was a delicious combo. I was always terrible at pie crusts but i have learned a few things - always use cold, UNSALTED butter and ice water. Chill the dough and always roll out on parchment with a floured pin. enjoy.

Great pie crust...I am the worst baker ever, and pie crust terrifies me, but this is so simple and it always turns out great both in looks and taste!

Wow! Great pie crust! I have been trying to find a good butter-only pie crust recipe for some time now, and this is the best so far. I made it in a food processor, it was super easy. The trick, I discovered, is to freeze the butter cubes for 45+ minutes and then pulse them into the flour mixture until the dough starts forming small clumps, then pulse the vinegar and water into the dough until some of the clumps start forming larger clumps and the dough starts mounding along the inside of the processor wall. Even though a lot of the dough pieces will still be tiny at this point, just dump the mixture out into a plastic bag or a large piece of plastic wrap and form it into a ball. The whole process should only take about than 5 minutes. And the resulting crust is super flaky and tender!

Wow! Great pie crust! I have been trying to find a good butter-only pie crust recipe for some time now, and this is the best so far. I made it in a food processor, it was super easy. The trick, I discovered, is to freeze the butter cubes for 45+ minutes and then pulse them into the flour mixture until the dough starts forming small clumps, then pulse the vinegar and water into the dough until some of the clumps start forming larger clumps and the dough starts mounding along the inside of the processor wall. Even though a lot of the dough pieces will still be tiny at this point, just dump the mixture out into a plastic bag or a large piece of plastic wrap and form it into a ball. The whole process should only take about than 5 minutes. And the resulting crust is super flaky and tender!

I made this for the Peach Lattice Pie and loved it. I have been using the CI crisco & butter recipe for a while and love that for pumpkin and pecan, but this - somewhat sweet and ever so slightly salty - is perfect for sweet fruit pies. I wouldn't cut back on the salt, that was part of the goodness. Maybe if you're the kind of person who likes salt on watermelon and cheese with apples you'll like the salt in this. Everyone I served it to loved it.

Perfect! Simple, this will be my pie crust recipe from now on!

Best pie crust ever! Great for pies and great for quiche as well! Highly recommend! Be sure to chill crust after each step as it will ensure a nice flaky crust!