Not only can you bake rustic looking homemade pies, the crust is melt-in-your-mouth flaky. Flaky pie pastry need not be complicated.
Like most things, good things take time. I don’t have a fancy cake mixer nor any ‘paddle attachments’, so this recipe is made the old fashioned way – by hand.
Here are a few little tips to help along the way:
Give it a Fold: Pat or gently roll the dough into a rough rectangle. Fold one third into the centre, then fold the opposite third over the top, rather like folding a letter. Turn it 90 degrees and gently flatten it into a disc. This little extra step helps create flaky layers without turning the whole thing into a major pastry-making exercise.
Chill: Wrap the pastry and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before laying into your pie dish. This gives the flour time to hydrate, relaxes the gluten and, importantly, gets that butter properly cold again.
Blind Baking: Part of the crust process is to ‘blind bake’ it for around 15 mins. This involves covering the pastry once in the pie dish, with aluminum foil or baking paper, then holding it down with baking weights. These need not be fancy purchased weights. I’ve used raw rice and dry beans before.
Crimping Pastry: I pinch the pastry with the thumb and pointer finger of my right hand, and make an indent on the other side using the knuckle of my finger. You can do it any way you choose but that works for me!
Freezing Pastry: Simply wrap up the raw dough in cling film, pop into an air tight container or bag, then freeze. This can be used within several months. Or alternatively once you’ve made the dough, it can keep for several days in the fridge before use (again, wrapped so it doesn’t dry out).
Homemade Flaky Pie Pastry
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 100g chilled butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 egg yolk
- 2-4 Tbsp iced water
Method
- Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Add butter and using the tips of your fingers, rub the butter into the flour. Don’t get over paranoid – it doesn’t have to resemble breadcrumbs. Chunks of visible butter won’t hurt a bit – in fact, little chunks of butter still visible through the flour is going to help create the flaky texture.
- Add egg yolk and mix in with a knife.
- Add iced water one tablespoon at a time (you may not need all four tablespoons). Mix water in with a knife. You’ll see the dough starting to clump together in pop-corn sized balls. Stop adding water when you can squeeze a handful together and it holds. A little loose flour is fine. A wet sticky dough isn’t what we’re after.
- Tip the mixture onto a lightly floured board and gently press it together. Don’t need it as you would bread dough – we don’t want to overwork the gluten or completely blend those pieces of butter into the dough.
- Pat the dough into a rough rectangle then fold: fold one third into the centre, then fold the opposite third over the top (rather like folding a letter). Turn it 90 degrees and gently flatten it into a disc.
- Wrap pastry in cling-film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- The dough will now be nice and firm. On a lightly floured board, use your trusty rolling pin to roll into your desired pie dish shape, aiming for roughly 3-5mm thickness. Loosely roll or drape the pastry over your polling pin then lower it into the pie dish. Ease the pastry into the corners (try not to stretch it forcefully as it is likely to shrink back when in the oven).
- Trim any excess pastry around the edges (or leave a small overhang if you want a lovely rustic look). Crimp the edges (not completely necessary, but again looks rustic)!
- Chill again for at least 30 minutes. Cold pastry going into a hot oven is one of the tricks to a crisp, flaky shell that holds its shape.
- Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan bake).
- Blind bake: cover the chilled pastry shell with baking paper and fill with baking weights (dried beans, uncooked rice etc) and bake for around 15 minutes until the sides have started to set.
- Carefully remove the foil and weights. If the base has puffed up anywhere, gently press it back down, then bake for another 8-12 minutes until the base is dry and nicely golden.
- Then go prepare your pie filling! Mine was a Grapefruit Meringue Pie!
Happy baking!
Original Post: August 2017
