Butter Pie Crust

Time is important, and when it comes to baking foods from scratch, one might as well make the most of their time baking.

Where am I going with this statement? Well, tonight is the evening before Thanksgiving, and boy do I have A LOT of food to make.  But, I don't want to skimp on my recipes in order to save time.  For example, I'm not the kind of cook that buys those pre-made pie crusts in the hopes of creating a flavorful pie.  Instead, I always make my pie crusts from scratch if I can spare the time!

Below is my favorite pie crust recipe of all time--it's great for pies (i.e., apple pies of which the recipe originated at Simply Recipes), or other dishes such as pot pie, or quiche.

I also want to add that what makes this recipe so spectacular is without a doubt the heaping brown sugar you add.  I've never come across a pie crust recipe with this combination, and the hint of flavor makes a wonderful addition to the final recipe.

Butter Pie Crust
I've made several changes to the original recipe; primarily, I have doubled it in hopes of making twice as much pie crust at once (who doesn't want a ton of pie crust?), and I have also ommitted the need for almond flour or finely ground almonds, but these still work.

Ingredients
*5 cups flour (all purpose works great here)
*4 sticks of unsalted butter
*2 teaspoons salt (I prefer kosher)
*2 heaping teaspoons of brown sugar
*6-12 tablespoons ice cold water

1.) Combine all flours, salt, and brown sugar.  If using a food processor, pulse 6-10 times to mix thoroughly, if mixing by hand (which is what I do), sift ingredients.

2.) Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes and combine with flour.  If using a food processor, mix until mixture resembles course meal.  If using your hands, like me, mix by mashing up the butter with your hands.  You'll probably need to go through the butter lumps to pull apart butter in the forms of pea-sized balls before moving onto the next step.  The idea you want to keep in mind is that the butter should be no bigger than a pea-sized balls before adding the water.


3.) Add the ice cold water several tablespoons at a time.  Since you're doing such a large batch, don't be afraid to add a good bit of butter when you first begin this process.

4.) Mix water into flour/butter mixture until a dough ball forms.  Once the dough starts to stick together when you pinch it together, the ball is almost done.  Flour a clean work surface and move the dough ball to that surface.


5.) Work dough ball into two large spheres.  This way, you can save one dough ball for the freezer (future pies, yay!), and use one for the big festivities tomorrow.

6.) Finally, cut both dough balls in half for a total of four dough balls.  Shape into spheres, or discs and cover in plastic wrap or seal in sandwich bags.  Regridgerate dough balls until you are ready to roll them (preferrably in the time frame of 2 hours - 24 hours).  It's very important that you don't over-knead the dough.  Also, if you see bits of butter in the dough, tha'ts okay--these bits will lead to a flakier crust.