Pastry for Single or Double Pie Crust
Ingredients
Pastry for Single-Crust Pie
- 1 ¼ Cup All-Purpose Flour
- ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- ⅓ Cup Vegan Butter Substitute (cold) (i.e. Earth Balance sticks)
- 3-4 Tablespoons Ice Cold Water
Pastry for Double-Crust Pie
- 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ Teaspoons Salt
- ⅔ Cup Vegan Butter Substitute (cold) (i.e. Earth Balance sticks)
- 6-7 Tablespoons Ice Cold Water
Instructions
- Place ice and water in a glass to get cold, and set aside. (You aren't going to use the ice to make the pie crust, you just want to get the water as cold as possible)
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, stir together the flour and salt
- Cut in Vegan Butter substitute until pieces are the size of small peas. I find it easiest just to use clean hands (sans rings, of course :-)) to cut the vegan butter into the flour, rather than using a pastry cutter.
- Sprinkle tablespoons of the water over the flour mixture, and toss gently with your hands or a fork until it is all moistened. You don't want to overmix the dough, though (overmixing will make the pie dough tough); just mix until all the flour mixture is moistened enough to form a ball. Use just enough of the water to moisten it enough to stick together, but you do not want your dough too wet.
- If making double pie crust recipe, divide the dough in half and squeeze each half into a ball. If making single pie crust, leave it as a single dough ball.
- On a lightly floured surface, flatten the dough ball a little. Then roll dough from the center to the edges, forming a circle about 12" - 14" (30-35 cm) in diameter (depending on size of your pie plate).
- Wrap the pastry around the rolling pin. Then unroll is onto a 9" or 10" (23 cm or 25 cm) pie plate, and form it into the plate being careful not to stretch or tear the pastry.
- For a single crust, trim the pastry to ½" (1.25 cm) beyond the edge of the pie plate, then fold under the extra pastry. Make a fluted, rope-shaped, or scalloped edge. Do not prick the pastry with a fork. (for the single crust, you can either bake prior to filling or after, depending on what type of pie you are making).
- For the double crust, trim the bottom crust of the pastry to the edge of the pie plate. Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust, and cut slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape. Fill the pastry in pie plate with desired filling. Place top crust on filling. Trim top crust ½" (1.25 cm) beyond edge of plate. Fold top crust under bottom crust; flute edge.
- Bake as directed in individual recipes.
Notes
- Make your water as cold as possible to help achieve a flaky pie crust.
- I like to fill a cup with ice & water, and let it get super cold.
- Throw away the ice before you spoon the water into the flour mixture.
- It also helps to have your butter substitute as cold as possible.... so don't let it sit out on the counter to soften.
- You can also use regular butter or shortening in this recipe.
- Use just enough of the water to moisten the flour mixture enough to stick together, but you do not want your dough too wet.
- I live in an area with very low humidity, so I always seem to use all 4 Tablespoons of water
- However, if you live in a humid climate, you may only need 3 Tablespoons of water,
- Do not overmix.
- Handle it just enough to form it into the dough.
- Overmixing will make a tough pie crust.
- I always save the dough that I cut off the pie to make cute dough cut-outs to put around the edge of the pie (i.e. leaves or snowflakes, etc).
- I squeeze the scraps together back into a dough ball (knead it as little as possible -just enough to form it back into a doughball), reroll the dough, and cut out using small cookie cutters.
- You can either leave them plain or sprinkle the cutouts with sugar, and or spiced (i.e. cinnamon, or pumpkin pie spice, etc) sugar before placing them around the edge of the pie.
- The standard ratio for cinnamon sugar (or pumpkin pie spice sugar) is 1 part spice to 4 parts granulated sugar. If you want a stronger spice flavor, then you can do 1 part spice to 3 parts sugar.
- The cutouts can be added to the unbaked pie, and baked along with the pie. Or you can place the cutouts on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) for 10 minutes, and then place them around your baked/finished pie.
- If you don't want to make cut-outs with the leftover dough pieces, I recommend brushing the leftover pieces with melted vegan butter, sprinkle with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) for about 10 minutes. Nom... Nom... a very yummy snack while you are waiting for your pie to bake and cool! :-)
- I use the same pie crust recipe for both my 9" (23 cm) shallow or 10" (25 cm) deep dish pie plate because I like my pie crust rolled thin, and I find that the same recipe always works no matter which pie plate I'm using.