Friends, I hope your summer is going well. I find myself amidst buckets of fruit this summer, which of course means pie! I have been asked for my all butter double pie crust recipe before, so here it is!
I usually try to health-ify recipes like this one by reducing saturated fats or adding whole grains. However, with this recipe I have not. It is such a good recipe as it is I have decided not to mess with it. We’ll let the fruit filling be the healthy part this time.
To make this pie crust easy to make, I make the dough in a food processor. I know some will say that you cannot make a flaky pie crust using a food processor, but I disagree.
If flakiness is important to you, then there are some rules we must follow or you can end up with a crust that is flat and not flaky when using a food processor.
How to make a flaky all butter double pie crust using a food processor:
We want the butter to stay cold until it bakes. If it melts, you will not have a flaky crust. How do we prevent the butter from melting?
- Start with cold butter and ice water so the butter will not melt during processing.
- Only pulse the food processor so that it’s speed doesn’t add heat by friction.
- Pull out the dough when it is still crumbly, before it turned into a ball (See photo above). Press the dough together on the counter instead, just briefly so the heat from your hands doesn’t cause melting!
- Chill the dough, preferably for 2 hours, before rolling so that any softened butter will harden again.
- Do not add hot pie filling, room temp or cold is preferred for a flaky crust.
- See the photo below to see how flaky the crust can be!
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 ½ sticks butter (3/4 cup)
- ½ cup water
- A few ice cubes
- Combine flour salt and sugar in a food processor, pulsing once or twice to combine.
- Cut butter into small pieces. Add to the flour in the food processor and pulse until mostly incorporated. A few pea sized pieces are ok.
- Add the ice cubes to the water, swirling to chill the water.
- Pour water (minus the ice) slowly into the shoot of the food processor while pulsing it. Continue to pulse the food processor until the dough becomes crumbly but the water is fully incorporated. If over mixed it will not be as flaky.
- Turn out dough onto a clean working surface. Press the crumbs together to form two disks (one can be slightly larger than the other). Refrigerate for 2 hours for the flakiest crust, or 30 minutes for a more workable dough that won’t stick.
- Roll dough out on a floured working surface to a 12 inch circle and a 10 inch circle.
- Line the pie pan with the 12 inch circle, fill with filling, and top with the 10 inch circle. Cut off excess dough and crimp the edges of the two circles together by pinching them together with your fingers or pressing them together with a fork.
- Cut a vent in the top of the pie and cover the crust with foil or a pie circle. Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes to an hour.
