Foolproof Homeamde Pie Dough Recipe | Alexandra's Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a perfect pie crust? ›

For Flaky Pie Crust, Keep Everything COLD, Especially Your Butter. If your kitchen is above 73°F, you can refrigerate all of your ingredients and equipment including your bowl, rolling pin, and pie plate until it's between 65-70°F (dip an instant-read thermometer into your flour to gauge the temperature).

Rule #1: Keep The Fats and Liquids COLD

We want the butter cold so when the cold butter hits the hot oven, the water inside the butter rises and evaporates quickly, creating a perfectly layered and flaky crust. A flaky crust starts with cold butter.

In pie crust, you don't want gluten to form so you don't want to mix too much and overwork the dough. For a flaky crust, cut the butter so that chunks of butter about the size of walnut halves remain.

Others swear that vinegar is doing double duty and also helping pie dough get golden brown. The theory there is that the acidity keeps the dough from oxidizing, which helps it get nicely bronzed in the oven.

“My preferred fat for pie crusts will always be butter. To me, it is all about flavor, and no other fat gives flavor to a crust like butter does. Other fats, even though they have great pros, lack flavor,” De Sa Martins said. “The more flavorful the butter, the more flavor your pie crust will have,” Huntsberger added.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Tip: Chilling hardens the fat in the dough, which will help the crust maintain its structure as it bakes. And the short rest before rolling relaxes the dough's gluten, helping prevent a tough crust.

The cardinal rules of pie dough: Keep it cold, work fast, and don't overwork your dough.

The most flaky, tender crust comes down to a simple 3:2:1 ratio of ingredients—flour, fat, water— no actual recipe needed. Once I understood 3:2:1 pastry crust (which isn't hard, I promise) I had the foundation for not only pies, but also tarts, galettes, pot pies, hand pies and more. The “3” in this ratio is flour.

Non-chilled crust is fairly crumbly and less smooth, which makes it harder to roll out and means it may not look as polished. It will brown more quickly and the final product will likely be tougher, heavier, and more doughy – none of those in a bad way. It will likely have a more intense, butter flavor.

Whether you use a food processor, a stand mixer, or your hands to incorporate the ingredients together, overmixing is a common mistake that leads to a chewy crust. It's tempting when baking to combine the ingredients completely, but the texture should resemble a coarse meal before adding your liquid.

Why did my pie dough turn GREY? ›

“Well-wrapped, pie dough can be stored in the fridge for two to three days, or in the freezer for up to three months,” says David. “After day three in the fridge, you can expect your dough to oxidize, turning a grayish color.” This is completely normal, but can be postponed by adding a bit of vinegar to your recipe.

The vodka works for two reasons. First, it makes the dough feel way more moist and easier to work with. Second, the ethanol in the vodka stops the gluten in the flour from binding, making for a more tender end product.

Unlike water, alcohol does not contribute to the formation of gluten, the network of proteins that can cause a crust to turn leathery. Because the alcohol burns off quickly in the oven, drying out the crust, we could add enough vodka to keep the dough wet and extremely supple.

Sprinkle dried breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes, or other types of cereal, on the bottom crust before filling and baking in the oven.

If you put hot filling into your pastry case, you will melt some of the fat prematurely and so the pastry won't be as good as would be if you let it cool. I +1 but note that if you cook your pastry blind first (without filling) you can then fill immediately with hot filling.

This is the easiest of all the crimps: press the tines of a fork into the edge of the dough creating small indented lines that face the filling. Rotate the pie plate as you do this, until you have created the pattern all the way around your pie.