rachel_loaf

Let's Work Together

Kitchen Essentials

I've been working on this pie dough for years and I'm finally happy with it. This recipe yields a crust that's perfectly flaky but still tender, making it suitable for all kinds of fillings, from fruit to custards. The buttermilk powder isn’t optional (okay, technically it is, but it makes this recipe really shine)! 

“1 serving” makes enough for a single crust pie. “2 servings” is a double crust. My favorite egg wash to accompany this dough is 1 yolk + a splash of cream + a pinch of salt.


My Best Pie Dough

Place flour, sugar, buttermilk powder, and salt in a food processor with approximately 1/3 of the butter, cut into chunks. Pulse until the butter “disappears” and the flour looks like wet sand.

Move the flour to a bowl. Use a bench scraper or knife to carefully “shave” the rest of the butter into thin pats and add to the flour bowl—don’t worry, the thickness of the pats doesn’t need to be perfect, aim for the thickness of 1-2 credit cards. Toss the flour over the butter to coat each piece.

Add the water all at once and begin folding together with a flexible bowl scraper or your hands. Use your hands to knead a couple times and bring everything together, being careful not to overwork or overheat the dough.

Roll dough out to a rough rectangle, about 1/2-1/4” thick—again, this doesn’t need to be precise, but err on the thicker side rather than rolling it out too thin, which could overwork the dough. Roll it up like a jelly roll from the short side. Flatten the roll slightly and fold in half along the long edge so you end up with a roughly rectangular block of dough. Gently compress/shape the dough into a denser, neater block (it still doesn't need to be perfect!).

Split the dough in half, and either roll into two rounds to create the bottom and top pie crust OR wrap each half in plastic as-is and refrigerate until ready to use. In either case, refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.