Four & Twenty Blackbirds' All-Butter Crust
★★★★★
PREP TIME
1 hour 15 minutes
MAKES
dough for one single-crust 9- to 10-inch pie or tart
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups
unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons
granulated sugar
1/4 pound
(1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup
cold water
2 tablespoons
cider vinegar
1/2 cup
ice
Instructions
- Stir the flour, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl.
- Add the butter pieces and coat with the flour mixture using a bench scraper or spatula.
- With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture, working quickly until mostly pea-size pieces of butter remain (a few larger pieces are okay; be careful not to overblend).
- Combine the water, cider vinegar, and ice in a large measuring cup or small bowl.
- Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the ice water mixture over the flour mixture, and mix and cut it in with a bench scraper or spatula until it is fully incorporated.
- Add more of the ice water mixture, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, using the bench scraper or your hands (or both) to mix until the dough comes together in a ball, with some dry bits remaining.
- Squeeze and pinch with your fingertips to bring all the dough together, sprinkling dry bits with more small drops of the ice water mixture, if necessary, to combine.
- Shape the dough into a flat disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight, to give the crust time to mellow.
- If making the double-crust version, divide the dough in half before shaping each portion into flat discs.
- Wrapped tightly, the dough can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 1 month.
