A Practical Guide to Holiday Pie Baking

Pie crust is two ingredients: cold butter and flour. Everything else is technique. If your crust is tough, it is because you worked it too long. If it tears when you roll it, the dough is too cold. If it shrinks in the pan, you didnt rest it long enough. Each problem has a fix.

I build all of my pie dough on a chilled marble slab, with butter that has been in the freezer for 20 minutes. I cut the butter into the flour by hand until the chunks are about the size of peas. I add ice water a tablespoon at a time and stop the moment the dough holds together. Then I rest it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Roll between two sheets of parchment to skip the flour mess. Lift the dough with the bottom parchment and flip it into the pan. Trim with kitchen shears. Crimp with a fork or a thumb. Chill the shaped crust 20 more minutes before filling so the butter relaxes back into the flour. The crust that comes out of your oven will be flakier than anything you can buy.