Step 1

To a large bowl at 350g flour, salt, and sugar. Place in the fridge while you prep the butter.

Step 2

Use a bench scraper or knife to cut the butter. First lengthwise (hotdog), then flip 90 degrees and cut lengthwise (hotdog) again, then cut into 1/2 in cubes width wise. Repeat with the other stick of butter.

Step 3

Plop all of the butter pieces into the flour mixture and toss to coat in the flour. You want to break up the butter cubes so every single piece gets fully coated in flour.

Step 4

Next, gather all of the butter pieces towards one side of the bowl and taking one piece (or one in each hand) at a time, smoosh the butter cube between your thumb, index, and middle fingers. Then plop it over on the other side of the bowl. This just helps you see what has and has not been smooshed yet. Once everything is smooshed just toss to coat in the flour once again.

Step 5

If you want an insanely flaky crust, think like rough puff pastry, you can stop here, but if you just want reasonable flakiness we’re going to break down those pieces even farther. Just rub the butter and flour between your fingers until the largest pieces are the size of about a walnut. If you want a shorter crust you can keep processing until the mixture resembles more like a thick sand.

Step 6

Pour in the majority of your ice water into the mixture and toss everything around to incorporate. Watch out for big clumpy bits right off the bat and break those up. Sort of toss and knead for about 20 seconds, then test the hydration by squeezing a mound of dough between your hands - if it holds together it’s hydrated, if it breaks apart very easily it needs more water. If a section is hydrated just put it over to the side on the counter, and continue with the remaining mixture, adding more water little by little, until everything is hydrated and holding together. *You don’t want a soupy mess!!!! Depending on your flour you may need to add more water, just do 1 tbsp at a time.

Step 7

Once everything is hydrated, gather it all on the counter/work surface and compress into a rectangle. Lightly dust with flour and roll out to about double the length. Then letter fold by taking the top 1/3 and folding it to the center and repeating with the bottom 1/3. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat the letter fold process. It should be holding together pretty well by this point!

Step 8

Cut the dough in half and wrap both in plastic wrap. Make sure to sort of compress the dough into the edges of the plastic wrap to smooth it out and just further incorporate it.

Step 9

Refrigerate for AT LEAST 30 minutes, but up to 3 days.

Step 10

At this point you’re ready to move forward using the dough however the recipe requires! If you’re making the apple hand pies, continue to the next two steps.

Step 11

Flour your work surface, rolling pin, and dough, and roll it out to an approximately 10 x 12 in rectangle. Make sure to add more flour, flip, and rotate the dough as you roll it out. You can also use your bench scraper to help encourage the dough into a rectangular shape.

Step 12

Use a ruler to cut the sheet into 8 rectangles. To do so, cut the dough in half width wise (hamburger) and in quarters length wise (hot dog). It’s ok if the edges aren’t fully straight. Repeat with the other dough.