Alan Carter's Pie Pastry

By west757

Alan Carter is the pastry chef and co-owner of Mission Beach Cafe. His secrets for Perfect Pastry include:
°Use chilled, not frozen or room temperature butter;
°Acid helps pie dough set up. A little vinegar and sour cream does the trick;
°Always butter the pie dish. Sometimes, especially with fruit pies, the juice sneaks under the crust and acts like glue, bonding the crust to the pan.

From: Better Homes & Garden, November 2010

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/2 to 1 tbs sea salt or kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 3/4 cups cold unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup ice-cold water
• 2 tbs sour cream
• 1 tsp vinegar

Preparation

Step 1

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. With a pastry blender cut in unsalted butter leaving chunks the size of peas.

Combine ice-cold water, sour cream and vinegar. Add liquid all at once to the flour mixture. Quickly stir to distribute; do not over mix. The dough should be slightly crumbly. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. The finished dough should break, not stretch.

Divide into three portions; shape into disks. Use at once
or wrap and refrigerate up to 3 days. Or freeze up to one month. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator if frozen. Makes 3 single-crust pastries.