Evan’s Ultimate Pie Dough

Evan’s Ultimate Pie Dough

  

• 12 oz All purpose flour
• Pinch of Kosher Salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder (optional)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 oz Unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 6 oz/170 gms chilled butter (or other fat), cut into tablespoon sized chunks 
• 4 to 5 oz  Water

MAKING THE DOUGH

Mix flour, salt and sugar, and baking powder, if using, together in bowl.  Add fat into flour using your fingertips or a pastry blender.  Take the slightly softened butter and work it into the flour with your fingers until the butter is evenly dispersed throughout the flour. You may also do this in the food processor.

Take the chunks of chilled butter and toss them in the flour so that each piece is coated.  Using a pastry cutter cut the fat or your fingers into the flour until most of the dough looks like crumbs the size of peas but some of the fat is still in bigger clumps, the size of almonds.  Do not over blend! You can also do this in the food processor by pulsing. But you have to be really careful not to overmix the butter.

If you’re using a food processor now you have to dump the mixture into a bowl .

Add the liquid by drizzling it all over the flour-butter mixture.  Use a fork to mix.  When dough mostly holds together you have added enough water. Don’t worry about a bunch of dry crumblies at this point.

Dump the mixture out onto your work surface.  Use a bench scraper to gather the crumbs into the mass of dough.  Use the heel of your hand to smear the dough away from you a third at a time.  You are creating flat layers of flour and butter.  After the dough is smeared out gather it back together with the bench scraper, using the scraper to layer the smears on top of each other, creating a mass of dough.  Do it again.  The dough should come together nicely, but you should still see your big pieces of butter.  Use the bench scraper to cut the dough in two pieces.

Form each piece into a puck shape about two inches tall.  Wrap each half with plastic wrap and let them rest in the refrigerator, for at least an hour or overnight.  The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months after it rests for an hour.

ROLLING THE DOUGH

I highly recommend that newbies use a pastry cloth with rolling pin sock.

Before you start rolling out the dough be sure you’ve cleared off your working surface.  You need room to move.  Take the dough from the refrigerator and place on surface that’s lightly dusted with flour. If you’ve made an all butter dough you might want to let the dough sit for about 10 minutes to let the butter soften slightly. 

Dust your rolling pin too, but not too much.  Gently rap the dough several times across the surface with the rolling pin to make it thinner and easier to roll out.  Flip the thick dough puck over, lightly dust it again and rap the dough again,  this time in the opposite direction.  Now you’re ready to roll.

Remember not to press down directly on the dough.  Think of rolling the dough across the surface and away from you. Always start rolling from the middle of the dough outward giving the dough a little quarter turn after each couple of passes.  Then flip the dough over and once again roll from the middle outwards, giving the dough a quarter turn each time. 

If any of the butter breaks through the surface sprinkle some flour over the exposed fat, then brush away the excess.

Lightly dust the pin, the counter and the dough as necessary.  When your circle is a few inches larger than your pie pan you’re ready to move the dough from the counter to the pan.  Gently fold the dough in half, and in one movement lift it off the rolling surface and into the pie pan.  Unfold the dough circle and gently ease it into the pie pan.  Don’t stretch the dough down into the pan.  When it heats up in the oven it will bounce back and shrink.