Recipes
Lisa Ludwinski’s All Butter Pie Dough
Makes two discs, enough for one 9-inch double-crust lattice-topped or full-top pie, or two 9-inch single-crust pies
This is our go-to pie dough, and it’s how each pie begins. Every pie baker, professional or at home, seems to have an opinion on the best combination of fats for the flakiest crust—is it lard, shortening, butter, or a mix? Our basic dough is a pure and simple ode to unsalted butter and all-purpose flour—we think produces the best-tasting, lightest, flakiest pie crust.
Image Credits
Photo by E.E. Berger
Ingredients
- 2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted European-style high-fat butter, straight from the fridge
- ½ cup ice-cold water-vinegar mixture, or more if needed (see note below)
Method
- In a large stainless steel bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt and stir to mix well. Place the sticks of butter [RP1] in the bowl and coat on all sides with the flour mixture. Using a bench scraper, cut the butter into ½-inch cubes. Work quickly to separate the cubes with your hands until they are all lightly coated in flour. Grab that bench scraper once again and cut each cube in half. I always tell my pie dough students that it’s unnecessary to actually cut each cube perfectly in half, but it’s a good idea to break up the butter enough so that you can be super-efficient when it’s pastry blender time.
- It’s pastry blender time! Switch to the pastry blender and begin to cut in the butter with one hand while turning the bowl with the other. It’s important not to aim for the same spot at the bottom of the bowl with each stroke of the pastry blender, but to actually slice through butter every time to maximize efficiency. When the pastry blender clogs up, carefully clean it out with your fingers or a butter knife (watch out, it bites!) and use your hands to toss the ingredients a bit. Continue to blend and turn until the largest pieces are the size and shape of peas and the rest of the mixture feels and looks freakishly similar to canned Parmesan cheese.
- At this point, add the water-vinegar mixture all at once, and switch back to the bench scraper. Scrape as much of the mixture as you can from one side of the bowl to the other, until you can’t see visible pools of liquid anymore. Now it’s hand time. Scoop up as much of the mixture as you can, and use the tips of your fingers (and a whole lot of pressure) to press it back down onto the rest of the ingredients. Rotate the bowl a quarter-turn and repeat. Scoop, press, and turn. With each fold, your intention is to be quickly forming the mixture into one cohesive mass. Remember to incorporate any dry, floury bits that have congregated at the bottom of the bowl, and once those are completely gone and the dough is formed, it’s time to stop.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, place it on a lightly floured counter, and use your bench scraper to divide it into two equal pieces. Gently pat each into a 2-inch-thick disc, working quickly to seal any broken edges before wrapping them tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap.
- NOTE: For the water-vinegar mixture, fill a 1-cup liquid measuring cup with about 1 inch of water and freeze until completely frozen. Just after you mix your dry ingredients, grab it from the freezer and fill with water plus 2 tablespoons or so of apple cider vinegar. The ice-cold water-vinegar mixture should look just like apple juice. Let it chill on your counter while you mix the other ingredients for the dough. Not the pie-baking plan-ahead type? That’s okay! When you’re ready to make the dough, simply fill a 1-cup liquid measuring cup about halfway with ice, then add water and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.
Divider
Reprinted with permission from Sister Pie: The Recipes & Stories of a Big-Hearted Bakery in Detroitby Lisa Ludwinski, copyright (c) 2018.Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, Inc. Images copyright © by E.E. Berger
Links
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