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| All- Butter Short Crust |
½ cup unsalted butter, cold
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
4-6 tbsp ice cold water
1 standard pie plate food processor
Chop the butter into small chunks, put them in a bowl, and set in the freezer for at least half an hour. While the butter chills, add the flour and salt to your food processor. Prepare the ice water.
After 30 minutes, remove the butter from the freezer and add it to the flour mixture in the food processor. Pulse the mixture four to six times, or until it looks like loose crumbs. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, pulsing as little as possible—just until it mixes in. To ensure a flaky crust, you want the dough studded with small lumps of butter.
Once the mixture is crumbly and just barely moist throughout, turn it out onto a floured counter or cutting board. Bring the dough together into a rough disc shape. Don’t worry if it seems crumbly and ragged—it will come together more in the fridge.Once your disc is formed, cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least an hour.
Once the dough has been in the fridge for an hour, you can roll it out. Take two pieces of wax or parchment paper, heavily floured, and roll the dough out in between them. This keeps it even and makes for an easy transfer to the pie plate. Work as quickly as you can to keep the butter from getting warm.
Transfer to the pie plate and press it gently into place, trimming off the excess dough from the edges. Cool for another hour in the fridge before using.
Many recipes, especially quiches, call for you to “blind- bake” the crust before you fill it. This ensures that the crust becomes crisp by the time the filling is cooked.
To blind-bake the crust, pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Line the pie crust with parchment paper, then fill it with pie weights or dried beans or rice to weight the crust down.
Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the weights and poke through the crust with a fork in a couple dozen places. This keeps the crust from shrinking. Bake for another 10 minutes, until the crust turns a bit golden. Once it cools, it’s ready to fill.