Recipe: Best Butter Pie Pastry and How to Prebake a Pie Shell

BEST BUTTER PIE PASTRY
Makes enough pastry for one 9-inch deep dish pie shell (single crust)

"This is the workhorse of my pie pastry repertoire. It has a great buttery flavor, it's easy to roll, and it holds up beautifully in the pan, remaining firm and distinct rather than turning into mush, as some pastries do. In short, I'm crazy about this pastry and almost reflexively refer to it when I'm going to make a single-crust pie. You can, if you like, make this pastry by hand, but if you have a food processor, I'm not sure why you'd want to. The most important thing to remember about this dough is not to over-process it, or the butter will warm up and melt into the pastry, with less-than-desirable results."

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 large egg yolk
About 3 tablespoons cold water

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse several times to mix. Remove the lid and scatter the butter pieces over the dry ingredients. Pulse the machine repeatedly - 6 or 7 one-second bursts until the butter is broken into very small pieces.

Place the egg yolk in a 1-cup glass measure and add just enough of the water to equal 1/4 cup liquid. Using a fork, blend the water and yolk. Remove the lid of the processor and pour the liquid over the entire surface of the dry ingredients. Don't, in other words, pour it into one spot. Pulse the machine again, in short bursts, until the pastry starts to form large clumps. Don't over process, or the butter will start to melt rather than stay in small pieces.

Tear off a sheet of plastic wrap about 14-inches long and place it nearby.

Empty the crumbs into a large mixing bowl. Using your hands, pack the dough as you would a snowball. Knead the dough 2 or 3 times, right in the bowl. Put the dough in the center of the plastic wrap and flatten it into a disk about 3/4-inch thick. The edges will probably crack slightly; just pinch and mold them back into a smooth disk. Wrap the dough in the plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 1 hour.

Roll and bake as directed in recipe or prebake (instructions below).

OR, TO MIX BY HAND:
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Scatter the butter pieces over the dry ingredients and cut them in, using a pastry blender or 2 knives, until the butter is broken into very fine pieces; the mixture will not be quite as fine as with the processor.

Blend the yolk and water as directed above. Sprinkle about half of the liquid over the flour, mixing it in with a fork. Lift the mixture up from the bottom of the bowl and press down on the downstroke. Add the remaining liquid a little at a time until the dough coheres. You may need 1 to 2 teaspoons more water. Form the pastry into a disk, as instructed above, then refrigerate as directed.

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HOW TO PREBAKE A PIE SHELL

First, freeze the pie shell until it is good and firm. Then tear off a long sheet of aluminum foil and press it into the pastry until it fits like a second skin. Arrange the excess foil on either side so it sort of points out like a pair of wings. This gives you something to grab when you remove the foil later. Don't bunch the foil around the pan, or it will deflect the heat. Fill the foil with about 1 1/2 pounds of dried beans, pushing them up the sides a little to keep the pastry snug against the pan.

Bake the pie shell on the center rack of a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Using potholders grasp the foil on either side and slowly lift the beans out of the shell. Using a fork, poke the bottom of the pastry 5 or 6 times, twisting the fork slightly to enlarge the holes, so steam can escape. This will prevent the pastry from puffing up.

Put the pie shell back in the oven and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes for a partially prebaked shell, or bake another 15 minutes for a fully prebaked shell. The bottom of the former will be light golden in color; the latter will be a bit darker. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before filling.

If your filling is on the soupy side, you might want to fill in those little fork holes in the bottom of the shell to keep the liquid from running out. I make a small amount of flour and water paste, starting with 1 tablespoon each of flour and water. Then I dab the tiniest bit of paste into each hole. You'll never be able to detect the paste in the final analysis

Source: Apple Pie Perfect by Ken Haedrich