If you have a food processor, this is an easy crust to make. The only thing you need, besides the ingredients and food processor, is time. Not including the cooking time needed for your pie, this crust requires from two and a half to three hours to complete. Much of the time is waiting for it to rest in the refrigerator and freezer, so your not actually working on the crust for more than maybe twenty minutes. Is it worth the investment? That’s up to your taste buds. I enjoyed it and will be making it again when I have the time.
The recipe and detailed instructions are at the end of this post. For this recipe, we need all-purpose flour, salt, granulated sugar, vegetable shortening, unsalted butter, and ice water. Looks like we have it all. Ready, set, bake…
Process the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor until combined. Add the shortening and process until the mixture has the texture of course sand.
Put the butter pieces in the food processor and pulse until the mixture is pale yellow with butter pieces no larger than small peas. Transfer the mixture in a medium bowl. Sprinkle four tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture.
With a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix. Fold by starting at the back of the bowl, cut down vertically through the two mixtures, across the bottom of the bowl and up the nearest side. The bowl is rotated a quarter turn with each series of strokes.
Press down on the dough with the broad side of the spatula until the dough sticks together, adding up to one tablespoon more ice water if the dough will not come together. Flatten the dough into a four-inch disk. Place on a piece of parchment paper.
Wrap in the parchment paper and refrigerate at least one hour. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle.
Transfer the dough to a nine-inch pie pan. Working around the perimeter of the pan, ease the dough into the pan corners by gently lifting the edge of the dough with on hand while gently pressing into the pan bottom with the other hand. Trim the dough edges to extend about half an inch beyond the rim of the pan. Fold the overhang under itself; flute the dough or press the tines of a fork against the dough to flatten it against the rim of the pie plate. Refrigerate the dough-lined pie plate until firm about 40 minutes, then freeze for at least 20 minutes.
Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375°. Remove from the freezer, line with plastic wrap and fill with pie weights, make sure not plastic is touching the pie pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until visible crust is lightly golden. Remove the plastic wrap and weights by gathering the corners of the plastic wrap and pulling up and out. For a partially baked crust, continue baking five to six minutes more; for a fully baked crust continue baking 12 more minutes.
Recipe: Pie Dough for Pre-baked Pie Shell
Adapted from Baking IllustratedPrint Recipe
Yield: 1 pie shell
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (6 1/4 ounces/177 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon (12 g) sugar
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) vegetable shortening, chilled
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick/57 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 4-5 tablespoons ice water
Instructions
- Pulse the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor until combined. Add the shortening and pulse until the mixture has the texture of course sand. Add the butter pieces to the flour mixture and pulse the butter into the flour. The mixture should be a pale yellow and contain butter bits the size of small peas. Place the mixture into a medium-sized bowl.
- Sprinkle four tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. With a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix. Press down on the dough with the broad side of the spatula until the dough sticks together, adding up to one tablespoon more ice water if the dough will not come together. Flatten the dough into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour before rolling.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll the dough on a lightly floured work surface into a 12-inch circle. Transfer the dough to a nine-inch pie pan. Working around the perimeter of the pan, guide the dough into the pan corners by lifting the edge of the dough with on hand while pressing into the pan bottom with the other hand. Trim the dough edges to extend about half an inch beyond the rim of the pan. Fold the overhang under itself; flute the dough or press the tines of a fork against the dough to flatten it against the rim of the pie plate. Refrigerate until firm about 40 minutes, then freeze for at least 20 minutes.
- Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375°. Remove from the freezer, line with plastic wrap and fill with pie weights, make sure not plastic is touching the pie pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap and weights by gathering the corners of the plastic wrap and pulling up and out. For a partially baked crust, continue baking five to six minutes more; for a fully baked crust continue baking 12 more minutes.