Flaky Pie Dough-1.jpg — Flakiest Pie Crust Dough

This is one more of those ‘one dough, many possibilities’ treasures. Use it once and you will see there is no substitute! Pie crusts come out flaky, not crumbly. Holds beautifully and works for savory and sweet recipes.

Use this recipe for savory recipes like tarts, quiches, tartlets.

Holiday baking gets oh so easy now! Your favorite tarts, sweet pastries and yes! That pumpkin pie!

Flaky Pie Dough-5.jpg — Flakiest Pie Crust Dough

It’s actually quite simple to prepare, and I will tell you why. The trick of this dough is to avoid handling it as much as possible. So there is absolutely no kneading, no worrying about over mixing… just make it all come together, pat it into shape and voila! You will actually aim to have a patchy, crumbly, uneven in color and cracking dough. This will mean that the butter bits in the dough are holding their own. They will melt and create layers in the baked crust, giving it a light flaky bite!

One dough…. infinite possibilities!

Yield: Dough to line 2 pie pans

Flakiest Pie Crust Dough

This is the only dough you will ever need for everything pastry. Tarts, pies, quiches, pot pies... you name it! You can't go wrong with this flaky dough!

Ingredients

1 cup Butter
2 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Very Cold Water
1-2 Tbsp Sugar (optional for sweet pastries)

Instructions

Cut the butter into cubes and place them back in the refrigerator to keep chilled
Mix the flour, salt and the sugar if using
Add the chilled cubes of butter and incorporate using a fork or a pastry cutter, until medium bits of butter and flour form.
Add the cold water and, with a spatula, mix and press until it al comes together. Absolutely no kneading!
Lightly tap into an irregular ball, or cut into the amount of pieces you will eventually roll out.
Wrap the dough in plastic or parchment paper. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to be used.
When ready to roll, dust your surface with flour and take out the pieces one at a time from the refrigerator.
*see notes for useful tips and baking times

Notes:

*Useful tips

This recipe is enough to cover two pie plates. Or enough for one pie with top and bottom crust...so double the recipe if making two of these!
Avoid handling the dough with your hands as much as possible. The heat from your hands will melt the bits of dough and it will loose flakiness when baked. The dough should be irregular, almost falling apart and uneven in color.
You can save this dough in the fridge for up to 3 days. Just wrap tightly in plastic wrap to avoid drying.
When baking pies with a fluted edge, cover the edge with strips of aluminum foil for the first half of the time. This will prevent the crust edge from burning.
There is no need to precook this dough before filling pies.
Brush some egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tbsp water) on the dough before baking for a beautiful golden color.
Add sugar to the dough for sweet pastries and pies. A few drops of vanilla go a long way too!

**Baking times @180C/360F

Pies, quiches and tarts: 30-40 minutes until golden brown
Small pastries like mini quiches, tartlets, or empanadas: 25-35 minutes until golden brown