I prefer a pie crust of about half vegetable shortening and half butter for the fat. The shortening adds a flakiness I do not get from the all butter doughs. They say all butter tastes better but I think the half and half has great flavor without worrying about overworking and risking losing flakiness. I try to do half and half but if I am short butter or short on shortening I just replace equal amount of fat by weight. This recipe is modified from Erin McDowell’s Book of Pie all buttah pie dough recipe. I like how she explains the cubing of butter. I always make the dough the evening prior to baking and allow the dough to chill in the fridge in discs wrapped in plastic wrap.
Makes a dough crust smallish size. For deep apple pie and adjust the ratio with 420g flour. I use this size for glass dish fruit pies such as the strawberry rhubarb and blueberry nectarine or any custard type pies.
Ingredients
- 300g (2 1/2c) ap flour
- 2g (1/2t) kosher salt
- 1T granulated sugar (omit if not a sweet filling)
- 113g 8T (1 stick) unsalted flour
- 113g vegetable shortening
- 60-70g ice cold water
Steps
- measure flour into large bowl
- add salt and sugar to flour
- keep butter and shortening very cold
- cube the butter into about 1/2 inch cubes (like to use brench scraper)
- cut shortening into similar small size pieces
- add butter and shortening to flour and squeeze butter pieces into flour with fingers until ressembles coarse pebbles or sand
- add water
- mix with hands until forms a ball, can add 1T at a time extra water until comes together
- cut into two equal size pieces one can be slightly larger (larger can be top crust)
- get pieces of plastic wrap on small plate and press ball into a disc
- place 2 wrapped pieces of dough on plate in fridge and let cool for a few hours (can be 1-2 days, I usually do overnight)
- roll out each piece carefully flouring rolling pin and surface
- make sure fits pie plate and place bottom crust in pie plate
- add filling, then roll out top crust
- can sprinkle sugar on top and can brush egg wash on top to make golden crust
