CI’s Foolproof all-butter dough for double-crust pie

I spent forty years going out of my way to avoid making pie dough. I just hated the whole process of dealing with that dry, crumbly mess, just to end up with something that didn’t taste any better than the pre-made dough or frozen crusts I could get at the grocery. In fact, I’d even convinced myself that ‘flaky’ piecrusts were just something people made up to keep cooks like me from getting a swelled head — because I’d honestly never tasted a pie with a crust that seemed like anything special.

Well, no more: thanks to the folks at Cook’s Illustrated I’ve finally seen the light, and I am now the biggest pie-crust convert that ever existed. In fact, I almost can’t find enough opportunities to make this pie dough — it’s just that good. And what’s more is that this crust is accessible to even the novice baker; so long as you have a food processor, a hand-grater, some plastic wrap and a rolling pin, you too can make THE most flaky, tender, flavorful pie crust anyone has ever eaten.

One thing you will have to do while making this crust, however: forget all the traditional steps, notions and ‘rules’ you’ve been given for making pie crust in the past, and just follow the steps from the good folks over at CI:

CI's foolproof all-butter dough for double-crust pie

Chef Testing

Truly 'foolproof,' this is THE flakiest, tastiest, all-butter pie crust you've ever eaten, courtesy of Cook's Illustrated. Fair warning, though -- the technique for this dough breaks all the traditional rules you've been told for achieving tender, flaky short-crust, while making it the easiest-ever dough to work with.

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 1 9-inch double crust

Equipment

• Food Processor
• Rolling Pin
• Box Grater
• Plastic Wrap (the stronger the better; I like Premium Saran Wrap)

Ingredients

  

• 20 tbsp cold, unsalted butter (2 1/2 sticks)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces) rec: King Arthur unbleached AP flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup ice water

Instructions

 

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

• Be sure to weigh the flour for this recipe if at all possible. In the mixing stage, this dough will be more moist than most pie doughs, but as it chills it will absorb a lot of excess moisture.

PREP:

• Grate 4 tablespoons of the butter on large holes of box grater and place in freezer. Cut remaining 16 tablespoons butter into 1/2-inch cubes.

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Pulse 1½ cups flour, sugar, and salt in food processor until combined, 2 pulses. Add cubed butter and process until homogeneous paste forms, 40 to 50 seconds.
  
• Using your hands, carefully break paste into 2-inch chunks and redistribute evenly around processor blade. Add remaining 1 cup flour and pulse until mixture is broken into pieces no larger than 1 inch (most pieces will be much smaller), 4 to 5 pulses.
  
• Transfer mixture to medium bowl. Add grated butter and toss until butter pieces are separated and coated with flour.
  
• Sprinkle ¼ cup ice water over mixture. Toss with rubber spatula until mixture is evenly moistened. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup ice water over mixture and toss to combine. Press dough with spatula until dough sticks together.
  
• Use spatula to divide dough into 2 portions. Transfer each portion to sheet of plastic wrap. Working with 1 portion at a time, draw edges of plastic over dough and press firmly on sides and top to form compact, fissure-free mass. Wrap in plastic and form into 5-inch disk. Repeat with remaining portion; refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Notes

TO ROLL: Let chilled dough sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes, before rolling. You can also use a rolling pin to bang on the dough a few times to soften it more quickly. Because this dough is so moist -- and to prevent increased gluten from adding too much flour during the rolling process -- I like to use a silicone pie-crust rolling bag when rolling it out, or sandwich the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap.

FREEZING: Wrapped dough can be frozen for up to 1 month. If frozen, let dough thaw completely on counter before rolling.

Keyword pie

TECHNOTE: This is where I’d like to put my own notes and observations, but in some type of formatted manner. Not sure if it would be best to do it here, or to add additional custom fields to the WP Recipe Maker recipe card(s). example: