Similar Posts

17 Comments

  8. Water does not cause a pie crust to become tough and dense. If water was the culprit, then puff pastry, which has a 50% water to flour ratio, would be hard as a rock instead of famously delicate and airy, with flaky layers that shatter when eaten. The standard bakery pie dough has a water to flour ratio of 30-33%. These water to flour ratios are cited in professional textbooks like Michel Suas’ Advanced Bread and Pastry: A Professional Approach. Michel Suas is the founder of the San Francisco Baking Institute and co-owner of the award-winning b. Patisserie bakery.

    A tough, dense crust with no flaky layers is actually caused by other factors. These include using too high a protein flour like King Arthur, having too low a fat to flour ratio, and incorrect mixing and/or rolling techniques.

    My pie dough recipe has a 30% water to flour ratio, and the water is poured over the flour/fat mixture. This recipe always results in a light, flaky crust.

  12. INGREDIENTS
    # All Butter Crust
    • 10 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
    • ¾ cup (3 ¾ oz, 106 g) all purpose flour
    • 1 Tbsp sugar
    • ½ tsp salt
    • An additional ½ cup (2 ½ oz, 71 g) all purpose flour

    PREPARATION STEPS
    # ALL BUTTER CRUST:

    1. Grate 2 T of butter from the end of a stick and set aside in freezer for later.

    2. Cut the remaining butter into half inch chunks.

    3. Pulse together ¾ c (3 ¾ oz, 106 g) all purpose flour, sugar and salt.

    4. Add the butter cubes to the flour mixture and process 30 seconds until a solid cookie-like dough is formed. This will trap flour particles inside butter to protect it from the water to be added later, thereby preventing gluten formation. This creates tenderness.

    5. Now add the remaining ½ c (2 ½ oz, 71 g) of flour to the dough in the processor and pulse 4-5 times to form pea-sized crumbles of cookie dough mixture floating in loose flour.

    6. Gently stir in frozen grated butter. Add ice water by tablespoonful until dough comes together. It’s okay to use enough water to make the dough easy to work with because the buttered dough will remain tender while the unbuttered flour will absorb water to form structure.

    7. Chill dough at least 2 hours. Then let sit at room temperature 10 minutes. Roll out as normal pie crust. Blind bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes, removing weights half way through.

Leave a Reply