How to Make Pie Crust - Tips

How to Place Pie Crust in Pan

Perfect pastry is flaky, tender, delicate, and not crumbling. To make a good pastry, the cook should be quick and light handed. The flakiness of the crust caused by many particles of fat surrounded and separated by flour. Slow handling caused these particles to melt and blend with the flour to form a solid mass which is hard and tough after baking.

The basic ingredients for making pie crust (pastry) are fat, flour, and liquid. For perfect crust, all the ingredients must be cold, especially the butter! Even the flour must be refrigerated before mixing it and the butter at least have 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Type of fat used in making crust would affect the flavor and flakiness. You can use unsalted butter for the rich flavor and flakiness pie crust.

Mixing the ingredients by hand or you can use food processor. If you want to use food processor, make sure your butter still frozen and stick so the flour wouldn't absorb the water. Adding liquid gradually (4 to 6 tbs for 300gr of flour), so it will just moisten the dough. If you add too much water, the dough will have to be mixed with flour and becoming overworked and tough. If too little water added, the crust will crumbling.

Vanilla Tart Topped with Fresh Strawberry

Use low protein flour such as cakes flour to make the crust. You can substitute cake flour with all purpose flour and add 1 tbs of cornstarch.

The dough should be refrigerated for minimum 1 hour before baking it. Always use a pie weights if you don't want to have too much rising crust while baking.
Enjoy Baking!