tried and true pie crust

Tried and True Pie Crust

I have experimented with a few different pie crusts and then realized I wasn't adding enough fat to the flour to make it work. For this, I use a half cup of butter for one crust or a whole cup for two crusts. Kerrygold is the butter! Yum.

Ideally, you'd want to use a sprouted flour with this so that the anti-nutrients are neutralized. For this recipe, I did not sprout my wheat berries.due to time limitations. I did, however, use freshly ground whole wheat flour along with freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour. The results were very nice. It is a light and flaky crust. It even has a nice flavor. My daughters instantly loved it - and that's quite the compliment coming from them. They were worried the "wheat taste" would dominate. It didn't. At all.

Tried and True Pie Crust (makes one crust) 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into approx.1/2 inch chunks
• 1 Cup  whole wheat flour, plus a little extra for rolling dough
• 1/2 Cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 tsp sucanat
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2-4 TBSP cold water or milk
• Approximately 1 pound of dried beans, for blind baking

Directions:

place flour, sucanat, and salt into mixing bowl and stir.

place butter chunks into the flour and incorporate with your fingers. that's right! work the butter into the dough with your fingers until it forms a ball. this takes about 3-4 minutes as the warmth from your hands makes the dough very workable. you can use a food processor, or even two knives if you want, but fingers work way better! you should still be able to see butter in the dough.

after you have a nice dough, add the water very, very slowly just until it's barely wet and forms a nice dough ball. I found I only needed 1 TBSP.

Place the ball into a plastic bag and flatten. refrigerate 15-30 minutes.

remove from refrigerator and roll out on wax paper for ease. I used plastic wrap (ick) this time because I was out of wax paper. it worked just fine. I place the wax paper on a large cutting board to make it easier to place into baking dish. 

I find that the dough comes apart very easily if it is not rolled onto the wax paper (note picture - the dough cracks on the edges). treat it gently. for rolling, I love to use this handy, dandy pastry/pizza dough roller. work from the center of the circle out and repair cracks with your fingers.

gently put the baking dish on top of the dough and pick up the whole cutting board and flip over so that the dough is laying in the baking dish.  

remove the wax paper and form the dough. repair (with your fingers) any cracks that occur.  

gently put the baking dish on top of the dough and pick up the whole cutting board and flip over so that the dough is laying in the baking dish.  

remove the wax paper and form the dough. repair (with your fingers) any cracks that occur. pierce with fork to vent while baking. fill with your favorite filling, or blind bake (pre bake) covered with foil (and add your beans or pie weights) at 425 for 15 minutes. remove weights and foil and bake 5-10 more minutes. I blind baked my crust but did not use beans or pie weights (foil only) and it turned out perfect.

Here's the end result. A nice, flaky crust with a hint of sweetness. this is the crust I use for my pumpkin and apple pies. I blind bake for the pumpkin but not for the apple.