FWIW I've been experimenting with crust. Am turning out super flaky light and tasty crust by doing three things and maybe carrying them to an extreme.
1. Butter. After trying scratch and several crust mixes the best has been bulk pie crust mix from a local discount grocery. Ignore instructions that call for water only and use a fine grater to grate in about 1/3 stick of butter per two cups of crust mix. Ditto for name brand crust mixes.
2. Cold. I keep the pie crust mix in the freezer and put all other ingredients and mixing tools, bowl, rolling pin etc. in the freezer. Best to put all in the freezer the night before for baking an early morning pie before the day gets warm. Frozen butter grates well with a cold grater.
3. Minimal working of crust dough. 3 tablespoons of ice water is plenty for two cups of crust mix. I use a huge serving fork to mash crust mix, butter and water against the side of the bowl. When it is barely mixed, still chunky and not really blended, use hands to form a ball. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for half an hour or a day or more, then roll out.
This crust approach with minimal water is harder to roll out, takes a bit of practice. I roll around near the edges to avoid cracks that come from only rolling outward from the middle. I use a homemade pastry cloth with circles marked on it to roll out the right diameter crust. With a pastry cloth it is easy to wrap the flattened crust around the rolling pin to transfer to the pie dish. We like it thin.
Last edited by Okanagan; 08/14/17. Reason: cut irrelevancy
