I have to say at this point that there's many different ways of making pie dough, but probably the biggest divider is whether you wish to use shortening or butter. I have (now) dabbled in both, and honestly, they're not all that different. If you use shortening it's easier to do for about 5 seconds; when I first saw shortening I thought it was play-dough. It's white and malleable, and you don't have to worry about the temperature as you (constantly) have to with butter. It's also easier to mix with your hands, since it's so soft. At the end of it all, though, it doesn't really provide any added benefit one way or the other. Thus, it's up to you, and I'll provide the ingredients for both types of dough, though I do have to say that I prefer the butter one, mainly because (1) I like butter and (2) I don't like play-dough, and it feels weird putting something resembling it into my food. So, onwards!
Ingredients:
Butter Dough - from the blog above:
2.5 cups flour (either pastry or all-purpose; pastry holds more moisture so packs in more)
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, very VERY cold
~1 cup ice water (feel free to float a cube or 2 in it)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Shortening Dough - from my baking class; uses weights, but about the same measurements as above:
375 g (about 2.5 cups) pastry flour (all-purpose works too, though remember it will be lighter when weighing it so use less)
250 g shortening
125 ml cold water
15 g sugar (brown, but white granulated is fine as well)
7 g salt.
both of these make enough dough for 2 crusts
To Make:
about 10 minutes
Assemble all ingredients. If you're using butter - as I am - make sure to keep it as cold as possible throughout the process (don't worry, it's pretty quick). If you're using shortening, you can relax.
First step - as always - is to mix the dry ingredients in a fairly large bowl - I'd suggest one that is wide rather than one that is deep.
Then, cut the butter into smallish cubes (or you can take the lazy way and just cut along the tablespoon lines on the wrapper) and add to the bowl of dry ingredients. If you're using shortening, just plop the whole thing in.
Next, you need to mix the butter/shortening into the flour. This is actually pretty much the only thing you have to do for this recipe (see? told you it's easy), and you can either use a pastry cutter, or a fork & knife (like I use above), or even your hands (especially for shortening, for butter not so much because you want to maintain the temperature) to mix the fat in by making it smaller and smaller. If you're using your hands for the shortening, be careful not to squeeze it; you want to scoop up the dough with your hand and use your thumb to gradually break it up.
IMPORTANT (especially for you perfectionists out there): DO NOT MIX TOO MUCH. That's it. You're done when the chunks of butter/shortening are pea-sized.
Then, you want to make a little hole in the center and add about 1/4-1/2 cup of your ice water (no ice cubes please). The picture below shows this step, along with your wonderfully-pea-sized blobs of butter:
This is it, pretty much the last step. Knead this mixture in the bowl - not too much; again, this is a very imprecise science - and continue adding ice water 1 spoonful at a time until the dough JUST comes together, but isn't too watery or sticky. This should honestly take about 30 seconds. Please don't sit there kneading it for all eternity.
Then dump it all out on a flowered surface (I lay out plastic wrap before flowering, which makes clean up a breeze!)
and collect all the bits and pieces, pat them all together, and then put it in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up. That's it, YOU'RE DONE! Congrats, feel free to pat yourself on the back.
Easy, eh? Yea, I thought so.
To Bake:
Once the dough has chilled at least 1 hour, you can take it out and mess around with it! As mentioned above, the recipe is enough for 2 crusts (normal-sized, 9-10 in pies), so when you take it out, cut it in half and then you're ready to go.
Take one half and knead it 3 or 4 times (molding it into a nice cylinder or ball shape) and then you're ready to roll it out!
For any of you who don't know how to roll dough:
-have plenty of flour, and make sure to put some on the surface and top of the dough before starting
-work from the center out
-roll 1-2 times, then pick up the dough and turn it 90 degrees
-when you're back to the first side, flip it over and continue rolling
-if at any point the dough sticks, dust more flour on the spot
-roll to bigger than the pan size; you want to leave room for shrinking and/or error
-at the end, brush off any excess flour and you're done
*if not using straight away, place back in fridge to chill
It's generally good to work the dough as little as possible. That said, if you mess up, don't be afraid to roll it up and start again.
So that's it. Happy Bakings!
Points to Remember:
-keep butter cold!
-don't overwork the dough; leave pea-sized lumps of fat
-don't over-water; you don't want moist dough
-chill for at least 1 hour before use
-when rolling use dusting flour, and roll from the center out, making sure to move the dough every few rolls so it doesn't stick
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