Pie crust is a building block recipe in the kitchen, useful for so much more than just the traditional pie. With cookies, casseroles, toaster pastries, empanadas, and more on the list, it's time to get your pie crust technique perfected.
Making pie crust can be intimidating for the novice — or even advanced — home cook. The ideal crust is both tender and flaky, and needs just the right amount of flour, butter (or shortening or lard), and ice-cold water.
Many pie makers say that the best way to achieve a perfect crust is to blend your ingredients by hand, getting the butter between your fingers to get both large and small chunks of visible butter in the crust. However, unless you have a pie expert in your kitchen with you, achieving the correct texture can be at best confusing and at worst tear-inducing.
Using the food processor to make pie crust eliminates some of that worry, as the pulsing method not only cuts the time down to a fraction, but also brings the crust dough together without overworking. Warm hands can be a detriment to pie crusts, melting the butter that needs to be very cold for good crust, so the fast work of the processor keeps the butter cold.
Be sure to chill your dough for at least an hour after making it to bring that butter back to a nice solid form, and you can even chill your assembled pie before baking. Remember that when rolling your crust out, it needs to be not too cold but not too warm, and be prepared with a bowl of ice-cold water as well as a bowl of flour nearby in case you need to repair tears or prevent sticking. Using a silicone pastry mat and an even dusting of flour will help make your pie the best it can be.
Now that you know how to make pie crust the easy way, try it out on one of these recipes.
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