Learning Moments: The Perfect Pie Crust

For this weeks Learning Moments, I went in search of the perfect pie crust. Since we're in the midst of the holiday baking season, I figured this would be a helpful topic of discussion.

Pie crust is essentially a mixture of flour, water, and fat. Seems pretty simple, right? Well where the science (and it is, in fact, a science) of the pie crust comes in is the culmination of the ingredients. Let's not jump ahead of ourselves, though. We should have an understanding of the purpose for each of the three main ingredients and how they interact with each other.

Let's start with flour. Flour is the main ingredient in a pie crust recipe and serves as the body of the dough. It provides a foundation for the other ingredients to stand upon. Generally all purpose flour is utilized in a pie crust recipe. All purpose flour is chosen instead of cake or even pastry flour because of the gluten content it provides. Gluten provides structure when mixed with liquid. Having too much gluten can cause a crust to be tough while having too little gluten will produce a pie crust that falls apart.

When water is added to flour, it helps develop the gluten and makes steam that will give you a flaky crust. the amount of water you use when making a pie crust is crucial; too much water and you have something resembling a clay disc while too little water will give you crumbs rather than dough. It's important that you use ICE COLD water when making a pie crust dough so that the fat doesn't soften.

Finally, fat. It serves as a flavoring agent and works together with the water to make a flaky crust. In my research, I found recipes that called for lard, shortening, or butter. Lard and shortening will definitely help you  make a flaky crust, but it doesn't serve much purpose in the flavor department. Butter, however, will provide a nice flavor and give that desired flaky texture. As I mentioned earlier, it's important that your fat doesn't soften. This is because if the fat is completely incorporated into the flour and water, you'll have dough that will fall apart on you. If the fat is cold, it will mix into the batter in chunks and provide a flaky yet stable dough.

So in summary:

1.Flour: Use all purpose.
2. Water: Keep it ice cold.
3. Fat: Butter is best.

In true scientific research style, I have three versions that I've manipulated to be slightly different from each other and am measuring their ability to produce a stable flaky crust.

My three variations are as follows:

1. Plain Martha Stewart Pate Brisee recipe
2. Pate Brisee recipe + liquor
3. Pate Brisee recipe + grated butter

Let's start with a list of ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

I sifted together the flour, salt, and sugar and then put the bowl into the freezer with the butter. After about 30 minutes I removed the flour mixture and the butter and divided each into thirds.

Variation 1: Plain Martha Stewart Pate Brisee

1. I took the first third of my butter and cut it into small pieces.

2. I then added the butter to my flour and mixed the ingredients by hand. Use your thumbs to mash the butter into the flour.

3. Once the butter and flour were starting to form marble sized pieces I added 1/4 cup of ice water and used a hand mixer on low speed for 3 seconds to blend the ingredients. Make sure to not over blend. You can use a spoon if you think you may go crazy with the beater.

4. Once everything was barely mixed together (you should still see chunks of butter) I balled up the dough, flattened the ball into a disc, wrapped the disc in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for about and hour and a half. 

Observations: This dough was sturdy when I balled it up. It came together and stayed together nicely.


Variation 2: Pate Brisee recipe + liquor

1. I took the second third of my butter and cut it into small pieces.

2. I then added the butter to my flour and mixed the ingredients by hand. Remember, it's all in the thumbs.

3. Once the butter and flour were starting to form marble sized pieces I added a little less than 1/8 cup of vodka that's been sitting in the freezer (remember the importance of cold ingredients?) and 1/8 cup of ice water and then used a hand mixer on low speed for 3 seconds to blend the ingredients. Make sure to not over blend. You can use a spoon if you think you may go crazy with the beater.

4. Once everything was barely mixed together (you should still see chunks of butter) I balled up the dough, flattened the ball into a disc, wrapped the disc in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for about and hour and a half.

Observations: This dough was the stickiest out of all three. This dough also seemed like the most likely to break. It rolled out the thinnest.


Variation 3: Pate Brisee recipe + shredded butter

1. I took the last third of my butter and shredded it with a standard vegetable grater. I have to say, I was very skeptical that the grater would actually grate the butter. I thought I was going to end up with a big buttery mess but because the butter was COLD, it shredded just fine!

2. I then added the butter to my flour and mixed the ingredients by hand.

3. Once the butter and flour were starting to form marble sized pieces I added 1/4 cup of ice water and used a hand mixer on low speed for 3 seconds to blend the ingredients. Make sure to not over blend. You can use a spoon if you think you may go crazy with the beater.

4. Once everything was barely mixed together I balled up the dough, flattened the ball into a disc, wrapped the disc in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for about and hour and a half.

Observations: This dough was the crumbliest out of all the doughs. It didn't hold up as well as when balled up as the others.


Once all three doughs had a chance to chill in the refrigerator for an hour and a half:

• I rolled each dough out on a floured counter 
• I then cut two circles out of each dough and placed them into a greased cupcake tin.
• To be able to differentiate each kind of dough, I poked holes in the bottom of each making the letters 'M' for the plain Martha Stewart recipe, 'P' for the liquored recipe, and 'S' for the shredded butter recipe.
• I baked the doughs in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 13 minutes.

Final Observations:

The first variation (plain Martha Stewart Pate Brisee) baked darkest in color, the second variation (Pate Brisee + liquor) baked the thinnest, and the third (Pate Brisee + shredded butter) baked the lighest in color.

I enlisted the assistance of my favorite tastetester, my husband Armando, to conquor the task of tasting each of the three crusts. We both agreed that the first variation was very flaky. The second variation was kind of hard to bite into. Finally, the third variation was very consistent and tasted the best.

We concluded that the third pie crust was the best because it was flaky, but didn't crumble all over, and tasted great.

So, if you want a flaky pie crust that also tastes great, use shredded butter, all purpose flour, and cold ingredients. Below is the winning recipe.

The Perfect Pie Crust

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

1. Sift together flour, salt, and sugar.

2. Place bowl with flour mixture and butter in the freezer. Remove after 30 minutes.

3. Shred butter and mix into flour mixture with spoon or hands.

4. Gradually mix in ice water until dough starts to form marble sized balls. Dough should not be sticky.

5. Divide the dough into 2 halfs, wrap in plastic, and refridgerate for at least an hour and a half.

 Dough can be frozen up to a month.

**Make sure to place all ingredients in the freezer for at least 30 minutes and use ice water.**

When I embarked on my search of the perfect pie crust, I enlisted the help of some of the finest bakers I know, the ladies from the 'What's Cooking' message board on TheNest.com. A special thanks to duchessII81, bmk112302, martinilove, GardenPeach, maxlad, and blu-eyedwife for your suggestions.


I hope you enjoyed this comprehensive review of pie crusts. Please let me know what you thought. I'm going to go eat some pie!