I am obsessed with making pies and I have been refining my crust recipe for many years now. It is very simple, but tricky at the same time and takes a lot of practice to make it just right. Here is a good start, with my own notes added:
Alice Waters (among many others, like Martha Stewart, etc.) has this awesome and best basic recipe for REAL, flaky pie crust.
- 2 1/4 cups flour (regular unbleached all purpose works best, or specialty "pastry" flour)
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 16 Tbs. fat (butter, lard, shortening. Butter gives the best flavor by far, but using ALL butter makes the crust hard to work with and slightly less tender, in my opinion. Most recipes, including Alice Waters' suggested half butter (8Tbs= 1/2 cup = one stick) and half shortening or lard. I prefer lard as it is tastier and has no trans fats, so is far healthier. It also contains vitamins and minerals not present in shortening. It goes against conventional thought that lard is good for you, but it IS! Martha Stewart uses all butter. It's up to you.)
- about 7Tbs. ICE water
food processor method: pulse flour and salt until mixed. Add half the fat (shortening or lard first if you're using it) and pulse until you have pieces about the size of peas. Then add the rest of the fat and so the same. It is important to have large, visible pieces of butter around the size of peas left intact. This creates the flakiness. Otherwise, you will have a tough crust. No one wants that. When you are at this point, add about 7 Tbs. ICE-cold water (cold is very important) and pulse until it BARELY comes together. If it is really crumbly and dry (it should be somewhat crumbly), add a bit more water, a few drops at a time. Once it looks kind of like wet sand, turn it out onto two sheets of plastic wrap, half on each, press them into flat disk shapes, wrap them up, and put them in the fridge. The dough must relax and chill for at least 30 minutes. You can do it up to this point 24 hours in advance.
After chilling, you are all set - take them out of the fridge and roll into flat crusts about 1/8 inch thick. this makes enough for one 9-inch double crust pie (one top crust, one bottom crust).
by hand method: mix flour and salt in a bowl. cut fat into flour in two batches using pastry cutter, two kinves, or by rubbing it in with your fingers. The resulting textures should be the same as described in above method. Mix in water by tossing it in with your hands. At this point, follow instructions above.
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No matter what anyone tells you, if there are any other ingredients besides flour, salt, optional sugar (I don't use), fat, and water, it is NOT true pie crust. It is a different crust. No egg, milk, oil, or anything else belongs in a true, standard pie crust. Again, it takes work to get it right.