Pies and tarts are wonderful ways to use local, seasonal produce. This easy one-crust recipe makes a flaky, buttery crust good with both sweet and savory tarts and pies. For a double-crusted pie, simply double the recipe.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar (for sweet pies and tarts only)
- 1/8 tsp.salt
- 1 stick (4 oz.) butter, chilled and cut into pieces
- 3 Tbsp. ice water
Preparation:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar (if using), and salt. Drop butter pieces into bowl.
- Use your fingers, a fork, a pastry cutter, or two knives to work butter into flour mixture until it resembles cornmeal with stray pea-size pieces of butter in it.
- Pour 2 Tbsp. water over mixture and stir until it comes together (add another Tbsp. water if it remains too dry to pull into a dough).
- Turn mixture onto a well-floured work surface. Knead once or twice to create a ball of dough. Pat into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.
- Place disk of dough on a well-floured surface and roll into an 11- to 12-inch circle, turning dough 90° between each pass of the rolling pin to make sure dough doesn't stick (lift dough and re-flour surface is dough starts to stick at all).
- Fold dough in half over rolling pin. Use pin to lift dough half-way over pie plate or tart pan. Let dough drop into pan (if you push or force it into place it will only shrink back to its original shape when baked). Cover and chill until ready to use.
