Pie Crust
Description
Holiday baking season is upon us and if you’re hoping to skip the store-bought pie crusts this year, this is the perfect recipe for you. Making your own crust is surprisingly simple and deliciously rewarding. This particular recipe is the favorite of staff member Kat Cyr, who recently taught a Co-op Class at the Hannaford Career Center on “The Perfect Pie Crust”. It comes from her go-to pie-making manual, “The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book” by Emily Elsen & Melissa Elsen. We hope you enjoy it as much as her class did! Keep in mind that this recipe is for a double crust pie (crust on top and bottom). If your recipe calls for a single pie crust, simply half the ingredients listed here.
Instructions
Stir the flour, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add butter pieces and coat with flour mixture using a bench scraper or spatula. With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture, working quickly until mostly pea-sized pieces of butter remain (a few larger pieces are okay; be careful not to overblend). Combine water, cider vinegar, and ice in a large measuring cup or small bowl. Sprinkle 2 T of the ice water mixture over the flour mixture, then mix and cut it in with a bench scraper or spatula until fully incorporated. Add more of the ice water mixture, 1-2 T at a time, using the 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 of 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 at least 1 hour, preferably overnight, to give the crust time to mellow. Divide the dough in half before shaping each portion into flat discs.
