The Flakiest Pie Crust

With the holiday season upon us, I thought I'd share with you my trusty flaky pie crust recipe which can be used for both sweet dessert pies or savory meat pies. This pie crust is so flaky I've even had people think I used filo dough for my crust. One of our friends  who is born and raised in the area once told me that with a pie crust like this one, you can win anybody's heart from Maine.

I know pie crust can be a scary thing to make if you don't bake often, but you'll be really surprised at just how easy it is to make a delicious and flaky pie crust with only three ingredients. I call it my 3 2 1 recipe.

Ingredients:
Yield for one 9 inch double crust pie or two single crust pie

3 C AP flour
2 sticks salted butter
1 C cold water1 egg for egg wash
Raw sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:
The number one key to getting a flaky pie crust is to have cold ingredients. The first thing I always do is cut the butter into cubes and pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes. In the meantime, measure out the one cup of cold water and 3 cups of flour separately and chill them in the refrigerator.

Once all of the butter has chilled, toss them in the chilled flour. The second crucial step to having a flaky crust is to never work it too much or else it will develop too much gluten and create a tough dough. Use a wire cutter and cut the butter into the flour until you have a somewhat coarse-looking dough. This will only take two to three minutes. You want to leave some butter in bigger pieces, which will create some pockets in the pie crust as it melts while baking. That's what's going to make the pie really flaky.

Now pour in the cold water in batches while you gently stir it in the flour and butter mixture using the wire cutter. I always try to challenge myself and see how many times I actually touch the dough with my hands. For this you don't even necessary need to mix it into an actual dough. Once all of the water is mixed in, just transfer the dough onto a parchment paper or a plastic wrap, gather and squeeze the crumbs up in to a pile, wrap it and chill it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Once the dough has chilled, you will see that they have formed into a more solid dough itself as it was resting. Now cut the dough in half and place the other half of the dough back into the refrigerator until you need to use it.

Now very gently form the dough into a disk; this way it will be easier to roll out.

Roll the dough out. You will see some of the bigger pieces of butter and that's exactly what you want.

The easiest way to pick up the rolled-out dough is to use the rolling pin.

Gently unroll the dough onto the baking pan.

Using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut off the excess dough, but leave about half an inch around the baking pan.

For the lattice pie crust top, roll out the other half of the dough and cut it into strips. You can skip this step if you are making a regular pie top.

Now place the fillings in the dough. Here I'm just making a very simple old fashioned mock cherry pie.

Place half of the strips parallel to each other.

Starting from the middle and work your way out. Fold up every other strip and start weaving though the dough horizontally across the pie.

Keep weaving until you've covered up the whole pie.

Cut off the excess strips and leave half an inch around the pan.  Tuck it in and fold it around the bake pan.

Pinch around the edges of the pie crush to seal it. You can use the back of a folk as well.

Brush on a layer of egg wash and sprinkle some raw sugar on top, this will give the pie a beautiful golden color and a nice crunchy texture on top.

Bake in a 400 F preheated oven for 45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Let the pie cool for an hour before serving.

Bake a pie for the holidays and win the hearts of your family and friends!