Deb Perelman’s All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough
This is Deb Perelman’s recipe, not mine. It appears on the Smitten Kitchen Website and in the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. She deserves all the credit for it. I get none.
Yield: enough for 2 open pies or tarts or 1 double-crust pie.
Note: dough needs 1 hour chilling time to make one open tart.
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon table salt (I used fine sea salt)
16 ounces cold unsalted butter; I used Kerrygold (tuck it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it.)
1/2 cup ice cold water (I fill a Pyrex measuring cup and stash it in the fridge)
Instructions
Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl that’s wide rather than deep.
Remove butter from freezer. Using a sharp knife, dice butter into small pieces. Add to bowl.
If butter becomes too soft at any time, stop and put it back in the freezer.
Using fork, pastry blender, or fingertips, rub flour and butter together until mixture is rubbly. Flour and butter should be pea-sized. If the butter gets too warm, tuck entire bowl into the freezer or refrigerator for five minutes or so to cool down.
Pour water over the flour/butter mixture and stir together with a spatula. It might seem dry. Don’t worry. It will cohere.
Either knead in bowl, or, my preference, dump everything onto a counter or marble board, should you have such an object, and knead lightly until dough coheres. Handle as minimally as possible.
Bring dough into a large square. Using a bench scraper or large knife, divide evenly into two pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap.
You now have enough dough to make two open-faced tarts or one double-crust pie. You can refrigerate both pieces up to one week, for freeze up to three months.
Assuming you want to bake one tart, refrigerate one wrapped portion for at least one hour. Refrigerate or freeze other portion for another pie/tart adventure.
Congratulations! You’ve just made pie crust!
Notes: Perelman gives instructions for making dough using a food processor. I prefer doing this by hand. It’s less washing up, and I’ve found my processor chokes on jobs like this one.
To defrost frozen dough: defrost in your refrigerator. I’ve done it on my countertop, but it requires vigilance and a cool kitchen. Proceed for use in recipes, below.