By Lily Krivanek
Recipe by Smitten Kitchen
I strongly recommend everyone to use this recipe for their upcoming Thanksgiving pies. I have used it several times before and it has become my go-to pie crust recipe. It is just a little bit sweet and salty and of course, its abundance in flakiness brings every pie to the next level. Happy Thanksgiving! – Lily Krivanek, Peagle Press
Servings: For one standard double-crust pie, or two single-crust pies
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter
½ cup very cold water
Place your flour, sugar, and salt, in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Cut your butter into small cubes (1/2-inch is ideal here), and add them to the flour mixture. Toss them around so that they’re coated and used your fingers to squash each butter cube into flatter, lima-bean like pieces. It’s totally fine if this is bigger than you’re used to. This is part of what makes it flaky and delicious.
[You could also use a pastry blender, stand mixer, or a food processor, but go very easy on it, especially the food processor — you want flat-ish, lima bean-sized pieces of butter, not the usual “coarse meal” or “small pea-sized” mixture. If using a food processor, when you’re done, dump this butter-flour mixture into a large bowl before continuing.]
Pour water over butter-flour mixture and use a flexible silicone spatula or scraper to bring it together into a dough (it will seem too wet and sticky, but it will be just fine).
Divide dough into two parts, and wrap each half into flat-ish packets wrapped in plastic, waxed, or parchment paper. Chill in the fridge until firm — one to two hours.
Unwrap the first packet of dough, place on a well-floured counter, sprinkle the top generously with flour, and roll it out into a thick-ish long rectangle. Brush off excess flour off the dough with your hands and fold it as you would a business letter, into thirds. Continue to roll this packet into the shape needed for your final pie — a 14-inch round is the usual size for a standard pie crust.
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See ideas for pies here:
https://smittenkitchen.com/?s=pie
