Pie Dough
If there is something I think everyone needs up their sleeve, is a classic pie dough recipe. I have worked to perfect this over the years through many trials and errors. But if there is anything I have learned, keep it simple. It is what it is, no need to try and make it complicated.
Before we dive in, here are a few pie dough basics.
Cold is key. The butter and water you add should be cold. When you use the dough, it needs to be chilled before. Nothing productive comes from anything soft (am I right ladies!).
Do not over mix. The more you mix it, the more elastic the dough becomes. This will make it more difficult to roll out.
Pie dough is not very forgiving. If you roll it out wrong, it's going to become tough and hard to roll out again. I like to cut out as much as I need, so I'm not rolling the same dough repeatedly.
Pie Dough tends to shrink when being baked. Using pie weights (or dried rice or beans) will help hold it in place if the pie needs to be par-baked.
Prep your ingredients before to make sure everything is really cold. Cut the butter ahead of time and put it back in the fridge.
Ingredients:
12 tablespoons cold Butter cut into cubes (1 1/2 sticks because no one wants to do the math)
6-8 tablespoons cold Water
3 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
1/3 cup Shortening
Using a kitchen mixer or a food processor (some people swear by the food processor method. I have always used my mixer.) Like I said before, the key is to not over mix it.
Add in the dry ingredient and mix to incorporate.
Slowly add the cold butter and shortening in small amounts.
It should look crumbly.
Lastly, slowly add the cold water until the dough comes together. You may not need all of the water. The dough should still be chunky.
Remove the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and kneed it until it forms a disk.
Wrap in plastic and place in the fridge to chill for an hour before rolling it out.
It will last two weeks in the fridge.
Cheers Babes
XOXO
