Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus some for dusting) ($0.34)
- 2 sticks salted butter, frozen (1 cup) ($2.00)
- 1/2 cup chilled water* ($0.00)
Instructions
- Freeze flour and butter overnight. Keeping the butter at a cold temp is essential to achieving flaky pastry layers in the end result.
- Put some of the flour in a mixing bowl and grate some butter.
- Pause often to stir grated butter into flour, ensuring even coating.
- Grate the butter sticks on the box grater's large holes. When the butter becomes challenging to handle, chop what's left of it into dice-sized pieces.
- Spoon four tablespoons of chilled, icy water onto the flour/butter mixture. Mix quickly with a fork, incorporating the flour gathered at the bowl's bottom.
- Continue to add water tablespoon by tablespoon, mixing between each addition, until you can lightly pinch the flour/butter mixture and it holds together in a dough.
- Use your hands to press the shaggy bits of dough into a ball quickly. Then, lightly flour your work surface and shape the ball into a flat disc, about six inches in diameter and three
- Wrap the disc of dough tightly in plastic or beeswax. Let it rest in the fridge for at least two hours, preferably overnight.
- Use the pie dough in your favorite recipe or keep the pie dough in the refrigerator for up to three days or frozen for up to three months. This recipe is for a double crust.
If Making a Double Crust Pie
Slice the rested dough an inch above the center line and shape both halves into a disc. Place the larger half on a lightly floured work surface. Roll from the center up, down, left, and right. Lift the dough, rotate 15 degrees, and repeat the sequence until it’s 14 inches in diameter and the thickness of an ear lobe
Fold the dough in half and then half again and roll it out again. Repeat one or two more times.