Thursday, October 2, 2014

Pie Crust

That's it. Just crust.

In a food processor.

Ideally, everything should be as cold as possible. You can use mostly-frozen butter, if you like. Then, move fast. You want the butter to remain in itty-bitty pieces rather than mixing into the flour.

The larger the butter pieces, the larger and more layered the crust will be - like a puff pastry crust. But if the butter chunks are large, they also need to be very very flat.

I've made pie crust doughs where the butter was visible as dime-sized, super thin layers, and I've made crusts where the butter seemed to be nothing more than tiny flecks. And I've made pie crusts with liquid oil instead of a solid fat. It's all a matter of taste.

Pie Crust 1

6 ounces (a shy 1 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vodka
3 tablespoons very cold water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in the processor and pulse a few times to mix it up.

Cut the butter into a a bunch of chunks and add it to the food processor. Pulse a few times to break up and distribute the pieces.

Combine the vodka and water. With the processor running add this. When the dough starts clumping together, you're done. You can pulse a few times if you've got flour that's not quite incorporated, but this should should happen very quickly. You don't want to combine the butter with the dough - you want it to remain in itty-bitty pieces.

Transfer the dough to a plastic zip-top bag, flatten the dough (it chills faster) and refrigerate for at least an hour, but up to a few days.

Continue with whatever recipe you're making.

Pie Crust 2
Slightly larger crust, a little sweeter

2 cups (9 ounces) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup very cold water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in the processor and pulse a few times to mix it up.

Add the shortening and process until it disappears into the flour.

Cut the butter into a a bunch of chunks and add it to the food processor. Pulse a few times to break up and distribute the pieces. There shouldn't be any large chunks, but you've got a lot more processing about to happen, so it's fine if there are visible pieces.

Combine the vanilla and water. With the processor running add this. When the dough starts clumping together, you're done. You can pulse a few times if you've got flour that's not quite incorporated, but this should should happen very quickly. You don't want to combine the butter with the dough - you want it to remain in itty-bitty pieces.

Transfer the dough to a plastic zip-top bag, flatten the dough (it chills faster) and refrigerate for at least an hour, but up to a few days.

Continue with whatever recipe you're making.
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