Blue Ribbon Pie Dough

This classic pie dough, made with our Organic Unbleached Pastry Flour, is a very flexible dough. It can be used for single- or double-crust pies, galettes, custard pies, and even quiches. Filled with the right ingredients, it might even help your garner that county fair blue ribbon you’ve had your eye on for years 😉

The formula will give you enough dough to make one double 9-inch crust or two single crust, with some extra left over for hand pies or a galette. Play around with it and get creative with how you use it. One modification we have fun with is to make a chocolate version where you substitute 20% of the flour weight with cocoa powder. Pie-yah!

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Formula

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Process

In a large bowl, sift or thoroughly mix the flour and salt together, breaking up any large clumps that may occur in the flour.

Cut the cold butter into ½ inch cubes and add it into the dry mixture. You can use the paddle of your mixer and slowly mix it until the mixture resembles a bit like cornmeal with some small chunks of butter.

Sprinkle cold water into the mixture and mix until you have large loose clumps.

Take the mixture out of the bowl and onto a flat surface and press the clumps together to form a cohesive mass. You can also use a bench knife or a straight scraper and fold the crumbs over the mass from each direction as if you were folding a large envelope. Each time, pressing down on the dough and turning the mass 90 degrees to prevent it from sticking to the surface.

Once the crumbs have been absorbed into the large mass and no dry flour remains visible, divide the dough in two pieces and form a disc. Wrap the discs with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.

When you are ready to bake the crust, preheat the oven to 325˚F.

Remove the dough from the fridge and let it rest for 20-30 minutes to make it easier to roll without the dough cracking. Unwrap the dough and place it onto a lightly floured surface. Dust the top of the dough with flour and gently roll out the dough for a thickness of ⅛ inch.

If using in a form, make sure that the dough is rolled out at least 3 inches larger than the diameter of the pan.

For a single crust:

Place the dough into the pan, ensuring that the dough sits firmly into the edges of the pan and all the air pockets have been smoothed out. Trim the dough to be ½ inches larger than the actual pan. You will be folding the edge under the dough and flattening it to form a lip that sits on the pan’s edge. This fold also will give you a cleaner crimp design for the edge of your pie.

Dock the dough with a fork to allow steam to escape during baking. Place parchment on the top of the dough and fill it with pie weights, beans, or rice and blind bake the dough for 10 min.

Remove the parchment and the weights and return the crust to the oven to bake for another 4 minutes, until the dough begins to brown and get a little color.

Take the crust out and fill it with your desired baked filling and place it into the oven to finish baking.

For double crust:

Roll both of the doughs to the thickness of ⅛ inch, making sure that the dough is at least 3 inches larger than the diameter of the pan. Place the dough into the pan, ensuring that the dough sits firmly into the edges of the pan and all the air pockets have been smoothed out. Trim the dough in the pan to be ½ inches larger than the actual pan.

Place desired filling to be baked inside the pan, wet the edges of the crust, and then place the second layer of dough on top of the filled pie. Trim the edges, fold them under, and flatten to create a clean edge to crimp. Make sure you cut some vent holes in the top crust to allow steam to escape. You can brush the surface of the pie with egg wash (mix together one egg, 50 g milk, a pinch of salt) for a darker and shinier crust.

Bake the pie for at least 45-60 min, until the filling has cooked/gelled and the crust has a golden brown color. Allow the pie to cool before serving.