Perfect Pie
Crust Recipe
Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter
2 to 4
tablespoons cold water
Flour Blend:
Whisk until fully combined. This will give you enough
for the recipe plus rolling. For best results use Asian or Superfine
rice and sweet rice flours. I also use Asian tapioca starch as it
does not have that “off” flavor of many tapioca starches. Do not
use Asian potato starch as it is made from sweet potatoes.
3/4 cup super fine white rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch (not potato
flour)
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon kosher or fine sea
salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Directions
Cut butter into ½ inch pieces and place in the freezer for 15 –
30 minutes.
Add some ice cubes to the water and let it get ice cold while
preparing the dry ingredients.
Combine 1¼ cups Flour Blend, salt
and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 5 -6 times to
combine. Add the butter and pulse 6 -8 times or until the mixture
resembles coarse meal with some pea size pieces of butter.
With processor running, add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until
the mixture just barely starts to clump together. If you pinch some
of the crumbly dough together and it holds then you have enough
water, if not add more a little at a time. You do not want to add any
more water than is absolutely necessary.
Remove the dough from the machine and form into a disk. Wrap the
disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or for as
long as 2 -3 days. Since the dough is so crumbly and does not hold
together at this point, I find it easier (and far less messy) to pour
the mixture into a large food storage bag and form it into a disk
using the bag to help. Then just close up the bag and put it in the
fridge. Remove dough from fridge 5 minutes before rolling.
To roll the dough, lay a piece of waxed paper on a work surface
and sprinkle with some flour blend. Lay the chilled disk on the
floured paper, sprinkle with some more flour and lay on another piece
of waxed paper. Roll the dough into a circle approximately 12 inches
wide. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper and carefully transfer into
a 9 inch pie plate and remove the waxed paper. Push the dough very
gently down so it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. If the
dough splits or breaks apart just push it back together. Trim the
edge of the pie crust to about ½ – ¾ inch over hang. Tuck the
overhang under and pinch the dough into a decorative finish.
To Pre-bake (or Blind Bake) a pie crust:
Sometimes a recipe will call for a pre-baked or blind baked pie
crust, here’s how to do that.
Freeze the pie crust in the pie plate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place a piece of parchment paper (or foil) in the bottom and up
the sides of the pie crust. Fill with dried beans, rice or pie
weights. (I prefer dried black beans as they help distribute the heat
better and are much less expensive than pie weights. I use the same
beans over and over.) Bake the crust for 20 minutes. Remove the
weights and waxed paper, poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust
using a fork and return to the oven for 10 minutes or until golden
brown.
Let pie crust cool completely before filling.
A gluten free recipe that makes 1 – 9 inch pie crust.
