Keys to Foolproof Pie Dough
It’s easy to make pie dough—just mix flour, water, and fat. But it’s even easier to get it wrong.
Perfect pie dough has just the right balance of tenderness to structure. The former comes from fat, the latter from long protein chains called gluten that form when flour mixes with water. Too little gluten and the dough won’t stick together—but too much and the crust turns tough. We’ve developed an approach that keeps gluten in check but also allows for an unusually supple dough that’s easy to handle and reduces the chance of overworking.