Flakiest Pie Crust
The dome® makes truly great piecrust with layers of flakiness. The secret is retaining some chunks of butter in the dough before rolling it out. The dome gives you perfect cutting control rather than risking cutting the butter too much in a food processor. You’re going to love this crust.
Ingredients:
1 cup and 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon of salt
7 tablespoons of cold butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons of ice water
Directions
Place 1 cup & 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour in a bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of salt. Then stir well.
Cut 7 tablespoons from a stick of cold butter (almost, but not quite a whole stick) and divide it in half. Refrigerate one half & place the other half in the bowl.
Cut the butter in the bowl with the blade of the dome into small pieces. Then push the ingredients against the bowl to blend the butter in. Don’t worry that you’re roughing it up too much. It’s only after water is added and the gluten activated that you have to treat pie dough gently. Blend until there are no large pieces.
Add the other half of the butter and divide it into chunks and then smaller pieces, but not too small.
Add 2 tablespoons & 2 teaspoons of ice-cold water. Then press the dome onto the flour butter mix, all around until the mix looks ragged and more dough-like.
Loosely form the dough into a ball and place it onto some plastic wrap. Flatten the dough with the dome to form a circle about 7 inches in diameter. Then wrap the dough and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let the dough warm a bit. Firm the edges of the dough through the plastic wrap by pressing them in. Unwrap and begin to fold the dough into layers. Fold the circle of dough in half and press down on it with the dome to join the halves together. Fold in half again –perpendicular to the first fold — and press down with the dome. You can do one more fold if you wish.
Then roll the dough out on a well-floured surface. Keep the dough moving — rolling and turning the dough as you work. You can even flip the dough to keep it from sticking. Continue until the dough is wide enough to fill a pie pan. Make grafts where needed.
Lift up the dough by wrapping it over the rolling pin and place the dough into the pie pan. Make grafts as needed and pinch the dough together at the perimeter, stacking the crust on the edge of the pie pan.
Flute the edge. One way to do this is by pushing your thumb against the dough from inside the pie pan while two fingers surround the thumb from the outside.
Weight the crust with dry beans in foil to prevent shrinkage.
Bake at 375° F until golden brown, but less cooked if the filling will be cooked in it.
Fill the piecrust to complete the pie making.