Name: The Best Pie Dough - 8- or 9-inch Single Pie Shell
Total time: 50 min
Yield: For an 8- or 9-inch single pie shell
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; 1/2 teaspoon table salt; 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/4-inch pieces; 4 tablespoons vegetable shortening, chilled; 3–4 tablespoons ice water

Why This Recipe Works

In search of the best pie dough recipe, we found that all-butter crusts have good taste, but they are not as flaky and fine-textured as those made with some shortening. All-shortening crusts have great texture but lack flavor. We experimented with a variety of combinations and ultimately settled on a proportion of 3 parts butter to 2 parts shortening as optimal for both flavor and texture. You can make a pie dough recipe by hand, but the food processor is faster and easier and does the best job of cutting the fat into the flour.

Before You Begin

The following pie dough is one in a series for different size pies. When rolling out the dough, roll to a thickness of about 1/8-inch thick (about the thickness of two quarters).

Instructions

Mix flour, salt and sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture, tossing to coat butter with some flour. cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening and continue cutting in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal with butter bits no larger than small peas, about four more 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of ice water over mixture. With blade of rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix. Press down on dough with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more ice water if dough will not come together. Shape dough into ball with your hands, then flatten into 4-inch-wide disk. Dust lightly with flour, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling.