Pie is hands down one of my favorite desserts, I would pick it over cake and cupcakes 95% of the time! With saying that though, it has to have an amazing crust. The key components to a great pie crust for me are: flaky, tender, crispy on the outside, and flavor. I love the flavor of an all butter pie crust but have learned that they are harder to achieve the flaky, tender crust compared to those that use shortening. So I set out to find the balance and tested for several months, like 10 months to be exact. I absolutely needed to figure out what worked and tasted best, it became my mission. At one point I even added egg yolk into the crust, making it more of a French Pâte Brisée. I do like one of the versions with egg yolk, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. So with a few changes here and there, this recipe has landed the title of my very favorite all butter pie dough!
- Why Vodka?! Adding too much water and mixing the dough creates stronger gluten to form, which in turn creates a tougher crust. Vodka however allows you to add more liquid to your dough while limiting the gluten development. It also evaporates when baking, creating the flaky layers in your crust. So there needs to be a balance of the two, water and vodka. Always keep the vodka in the freezer until you use it
- Cold Butter: Butter yields the most flavorful crust, however is more difficult to work with than shortening. It is very important that you use cold butter, the fat in the butter contributes to a flaky texture and when the butter gets warm the fat can become too soft and start to absorb into the flour. Thus eliminating the layers in the pie crust. It is essential to work as quickly as possible to keep the butter cold. I keep the butter in the refrigerator until the second before I’m going to use it
- Things to Avoid:
- Overworking the dough. This will create the butter to melt into the flour more and the gluten in the flour to strengthen from the water, creating a less flaky and tough crust
- Not letting the dough rest long enough. The dough needs to rest and chill in the refrigerator for the butter to firm up and the gluten to relax before baking
- Not using ice cold water, vodka, and butter. All of these are essential to keeping the butter as cold as possible while working the dough
- Can I make the pie dough ahead of time? Absolutely, you can make the pie dough and store in the refrigerator wrapped in plastic wrap for up to 3 days. OR wrap pie dough in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag (removing all air) and storing in the freezer for up to 3 months
Ingredients
*Makes two rounds
- 2 1/2 cups AP flour
- 2 sticks chilled butter, cut into tablespoon sized cubes
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tablespoon cold vodka (straight out of the freezer)
- 1/2 cup ice water, plus more if needed
Instructions:
- Put all the ingredients, but the vodka and ice water, in a large bowl
- Using a pastry blender or food processor, blend the ingredients until they look like bread crumbs with lumps the size of peas. Work quickly to keep the butter cold, the lumps of butter is how flaky crusts are created
- Sprinkle in your ice cold vodka
- Sprinkle in 5 to 6 tablespoons of ice water into the bowl, blending the ingredients together. Sprinkle in more as needed, blending until the dough looks shaggy. The dough should feel moist but not sticky
- Dump the dough onto a well floured surface. I like to dump it onto parchment paper and lift up the sides to squeeze the dough into a ball. If the dough still needs more water (you have dry flour spots) sprinkle small amounts of water on the dough, using a pastry scraper, scrape the side of the dough and place on top into the middle, creating layers. Do this on all sides. Don’t get it to sticky, it should not have a wet, tacky feeling.
- Divide the dough in half and form two circular flat disks. Wrap the disks separately in plastic wrap and chill for at least 3 hours, ideally overnight Or place in a ziplock bag, removing all air, and freeze the wrapped pie disks
Notes:
- make sure your butter is chilled, don’t let it sit out on the counter until you are ready, keep it prepped in the refrigerator
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