Tips & Techniques: Perfect the art of making pie dough
January 10, 2012 12:18PM
Let pie dough chill in the frig, and it will be easier to handle. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Pie dough is easy to make and nothing comes close to that homemade flaky goodness.
The easiest way is to use a food processor. First combine your flour, salt and sugar. Next cut the fat into the flour. You can add butter, shortening or lard. Just make sure it’s cold. Use small pieces and spread them out. Coat them with a little flour so they don’t stick together. Then pulse the mixture in your processor until you get pea size bits of dough and it looks like course, wet sand. Next add ice water one tablespoon at a time. How much you need depends on the humidity.
Process until it just starts to come together. It should still be pretty crumbly. When you get to this point stop. You don’t want to overwork it. If you still see a few bits of butter that’s what you want. Later on they’ll cook into buttery flaky pockets of flavor.
Now carefully remove the dough from the processer onto a sheet of plastic wrap. And with the plastic wrap, fold it into a package. Roll the wrapped dough flat and smush it a little. This helps the dough come together. Then chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour but overnight works best.
Scripps Howard
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