Pie Crust (Buttery and Flaky!)

For Christmas, Cecilia sent me love and a Williams-Sonoma giftcard from Taiwan. (P.S. She also has a food blog. Clearly, we're sisters.)

After much deliberation between a ravioli mold and a mini-tart baking set, I decided on the latter.


The most basic but also most important step of pastries and pies is knowing how to make the perfect pie crust. It's just a little harder than it sounds, trust me.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspon salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water

The 2 tricks to keep in mind throughout this 1, keep the butter chilled as often as possible and 2, DO NOT overwork it. You should still have bits of butter intact by the time you roll out the dough.

Dice the butter. Like I said, right after I diced them I put them in the freezer just for extra measure.

I sifted the flour (with my Williams-Sonoma flour sifter Cecilia sent me for my 21st birthday). Honestly, I don't know if that really makes a huge difference with pie crusts but I figure it wouldn't hurt anyway.

Then I mixed the butter cubes and flour and pulsed it in the food processor. Only until it looks like the coarse crumbs above. DO NOT over process. Do not over process. Do. Not.

Transfer to a larger bowl.

Then, with a tablespoon at a time, add water in and mix it with a fork. DO NOT OVERWORK IT.
You'll be terribly tempted to use your hands to mash it all together but don't. Put it all on a sheet of cling wrap and condense it into a disc as follows.

It will still look crumbly. But no worries.

Wrap tightly and refrigerate for 2 hours (and up to 2 days). Don't skimp out, it has to be this long.

When you roll. it out, the first roll will be crumbly. Re-condense it and roll it out again. It should be that perfect familiar consistency.