Making The Perfect Pie Crust From Scratch

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If you are just getting started in your online baking courses, you may be daunted at the thought of making your own pie crust from scratch – but you shouldn’t be!

Sure, there are plenty of store-bought brands out there that are great for pie making in a pinch, but if you’re a budding chef wanting to learn to cook online, you know there is nothing like the taste of homemade pastry. There are many methods to making pie crust, but a basic all-butter base is perfect for sweet or savory pies.

To whip up a tasty and excellent pâte brisée (basic butter crust), you only need a few basic ingredients. The following instructions lead to one 10-inch pie with a crust top. If you don’t need a top for your pie, simply halve the ingredients:

What you need:

  • 1 cup of butter (8 oz or 2 sticks) that is very cold and cut into ½ inch cubes (To make sure your butter is extra cold, consider cutting the butter before you begin baking and then placing the cubes in the freezer for an hour, or even overnight)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling the dough later
  • 6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

What to do:
Take a food processor and place your flour, salt and sugar into the bowl. Pulse a few times to combine the dry ingredients. Add the cubes of butter, and continue to pulse. The mixture should resemble coarse meal after around 10 seconds. If not, pulse a few more times. Keep the machine operating and add in ice water one tablespoon at a time until the dough completely holds together.

Clean off a surface in your kitchen and shape the dough into two disks. If you want your pie to be extra flaky, gently knead the mixture until it is flattened and then re-assemble into disks. This will create buttery layers within the crust. Regardless, you should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the disks, wrap them in plastic wrap and store in fridge for an hour or up to two days.

When you’re ready to bake, remove your crusts and let them sit at room temperature for five to 10 minutes. Roll out your discs on a floured surface with a rolling pin and voila! You have perfectly made pie crusts ready for any recipe.

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