when I bake The Hubs a pie, i put my whole heart into it!

Pie dough… I had so many failures with trying to make homemade pie dough that I eventually stopped self-sabotaging and regressed to buying the red box of Pillsbury dough in the frozen section of the grocer.  That is, until, my friend Kathryn showed me the way!  She held a little pie dough making class for me and Marianne, a friend and fellow pie dough making novice.

First step of homemade pie dough, open bottle and pour Chardonnay.  It’s noon somewhere, right?

the chardonnay sisters

What recipe had I been previously following?  Good grief, this pie dough making biz is EASY, plus wine with friends makes it fun!

Kathryn showed us how to scoop level cups of flour into bowls, add cubed cold butter, and start mixing.  With fingers.  I was like, hey man, can we use a food processor to do all this work?  Kathryn shrugged her cardigan covered shoulders and said she’d never before tried it that way, and she actually enjoyed the slow, zen-like process of making dough with her hands.  While I appreciate the need for zen-like moments and meditation, this was not that moment for me.  Zen-schmen, I was on a dough-making fact-finding mission.  Cue, the food processor.

easy-peasy!

The food processor made quick work of combining a pinch of salt, 2 cups of flour, 2 sticks of cold cubed butter and then the 6-8 tablespoons of ice water.  However, I’ve found that it’s best NOT to go all the way until a ball of dough is formed in the food processor, as I did the first time.  Pulse flour, salt and butter together for 3-4 pulses, then start adding in the water, pulsing in-between each teaspoonful of water.  Once the butter is pea-sized and it looks like it could start sticking together, dump the mixture onto a floured surface and start forming the dough into a little ball.

too easy!

I think I did 15 pulses total.  Once you’ve formed your dough ball, cut it in half, then wrap each half in plastic wrap.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or up to 2 days before use.  You could also freeze it for up to a month or so.

dough ballz!

You are able to see the chunks of butter in the above photo.  This is a good thing, as when the dough bakes, the flour coats the butter, which melts and releases steam, creating a flakey crust.  I know physics and chemistry is involved with that explanation which are beyond my comprehension.  I DO know the worst thing you can do to your dough is overwork the butter into it.

too cute.  don’t they look like they could be in a GAP commercial?

After we made our beautiful dough, we took photos and gave one another high fives.  A very fun afternoon with wine and girlfriends.  Oh, and Marianne even gave us little gifts of fancy soap wrapped beautifully in peacock paper and tied with twine!

fancy!

Flaky Pie Crust