1. The minute you even think you might want to make a pie crust, cut up a stick of butter into smallish (about ½-inch) cubes, and put it into the freezer. The colder the butter the better luck you’ll have with creating a flaky crust. Freeze the butter for at least 15 minutes, better an hour, best overnight. (I usually keep cubed butter/margarine in the freezer ready to go for making pie crusts. You never know.)
2. Place the flour, salt, and sugar into a food processor fitted with the knife blade and pulse until well-combined. Add half of the butter cubes and pulse 6 to 8 times. Then add the other half of the butter cubes and pulse 6 to 8 more times. You should have a mixture that resembles a coarse meal, with many butter pieces the size of peas.
3. Add a couple of tablespoons of ice cold water to the food processor bowl and pulse a couple more times. Then add more water, slowly, about a tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, until the mixture just barely begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it’s ready, if not, add a little more water and pulse again. Try to keep the water to a minimum. Too much water will make your crust tough. You will know your dough is ready when it clumps in the food processor and kind of stops turning.
4. Remove the crumbly mixture from the food processor and place on a very clean, smooth surface. Use your hands to press the crumbly dough together and shape into two discs. Work the dough only enough to just bring the dough together. Dough will feel too crumbly to roll out, don’t worry, it’s normal. Do not over-knead or your crust will end up tough. You should be able to see little bits of butter speckling the dough. When these bits of butter melt as the crust bakes, the butter will help separate the dough into flaky layers. So, visible pieces of butter are a good thing.
5. Sprinkle the discs with a little flour on all sides. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. (At this point you can freeze the dough disc for several months until ready to use. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator before proceeding.)
6. When you are ready to roll out the dough, remove the disc from the refrigerator and place on a clean, smooth, lightly floured surface. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, just enough to take the chill off of it so that it becomes easier to roll out. Sprinkle some flour on top of the disc. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a piece of Gefen Parchment Paper or even better, a Silpat mat.
7. Roll out half the dough into a circle, 2 inches larger than your pie dish. Invert dough directly over the dish by picking up parchment paper or Silpat and peeling it off once dough is fitted over the pie dish. Trim edges and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Hi,
I’d love to make this in advance and am wondering if it’s possible to freeze such fruit pies?
Yes, you can freeze this!