today we are talking all about pie crust i think pie crust is something that people
tend to be a little bit intimidated by but i want to show you all of my top tips for making
the most flaky pie crust and we're also going to go through a few troubleshooting things as well
if you need a recipe for pie crust i will leave a link down in the description for my recipe
but today i just want to go through all of my tips because there is some technique to making
a really delicious pie crust my tip number one is that you really just need to get in there and
try it pie crust like bread dough is something that is really about
feel and you just need to get some practice to learn how the dough should feel
you're really not going to be able to learn by just reading a recipe or just watching a video
so if you've never made a pie crust before i highly encourage you to just get in there
it's not as hard as you might think tip number two is that we really need to make sure we are keeping
everything as cold as possible especially the fat that is going into our pie crust so make sure that
you keep your butter in the refrigerator until right before it is going to go into your dough
the reason why it's really important to keep everything cold is because we want the fat to stay
solid before it goes into the oven we don't want it to melt or even get really soft because that's
going to make a completely cohesive dough what we want is solid pieces of fat that are kind of
dotted throughout the crust these are going to melt in the oven and create little pockets of
steam which is where all of the flakiness comes from if you live somewhere that's really really
hot you might even want to put your bowl and even maybe your flour in the refrigerator before you
make it to just help keep everything extra cold tip number three is that i highly suggest using a
little bit of shortening or lard in your pie crust in addition to the butter butter is what's going
to give us the most amazing flavor but i do like to add a little bit of shortening because that is
going to help the pie crust not shrink as much in the oven and hold its shape a little bit better
shortening and lard are 100 fat which means that when they melt in the oven there is no
water evaporating off of them like there is with butter so this just helps prevent shrinkage and it
also makes the dough just a little bit easier to handle so if you're brand new at making pie crust
this is just going to be much easier for you tip number four is that you want to think about
pressing down on the fat in your dough into flat sheets always start with your butter cubed up into
about a half inch cubes it doesn't need to be perfect but then you can go through and press
the butter between your thumb and your fingers and create all of these flat sheets this is going
to create a dough that has lots of different sizes of fat because as you work it throughout
it some of them are going to get broken up more and this is going to make a much flakier crust
i prefer this method to using a pastry blender or even using a food processor and sometimes people
like to freeze their butter and then grate it with a cheese grater the reason i like this is because
it's going to give us more uneven pieces all of those other methods are going to give us really
cohesive pieces of fat throughout so this is just my preference tip number five is that if you are
brand new to making pie dough and if you have made pie dough before and it became really tough
i suggest using vodka in place of water for the liquid in your dough the reason this works so well
is because vodka is not going to create gluten the way water does in your dough so when water
hydrates flour that is when gluten starts developing and so it's not going to do this
with the vodka and so it's kind of a little extra insurance policy that your dough is going to stay
really tender and flaky now i don't typically use vodka in my pie dough because if you know
the proper technique you don't need it and vodka is obviously going to make your pie dough much
more expensive to make but it won't taste like that the vodka will cook off and you can use the
cheapest stuff you find so that is a great little tip if you're brand new to making pie crust it's
really going to ensure a super flaky crust tip number six is that as you are adding your liquid
especially if you're using water and not vodka you want to take your time and really make sure
that you are letting everything get hydrated but you don't want to stir and mash it around too much
so i like to use my spatula and just almost kind of fold everything together and making sure that
there are no dry patches depending on the time of year depending on the climate where you live
and the brand of flour that you use you might need more or less liquid so pretty much all pie
recipes are going to list a range in the amount of liquid that you need to put in your dough
so this is what i mean by you just kind of have to get in there and try it so instead of worrying so
much about how much you're putting in you really just want to take your time and go by sight and
feel and think about just really kind of turning the dough over itself and letting it get hydrated
without aggressively stirring and without mashing it down too much tip number seven is to go by
sight and feel to know when you are done adding your water and when you are done mixing so the
dough is going to look very shaggy and very incohesive but you shouldn't have any big patches
of dry flour throughout so one of the ways i like to test to see if my dough is finished being mixed
is i put my hand in and gather up a big piece of dough and gently press it together
and i'm trying to see if it's going to hold together like this rather than crumbling apart if
you give it some light pressure and it all just kind of crumbles back into the bowl that means
you need to add a little bit more water or vodka whatever liquid you are using for your pie dough
tip number eight is that when you are finished making your dough and you're going to wrap it to
chill before you roll it out you want to press it into a circular shape it's going to be much
easier to roll a piece of dough into a circle when it starts out in a circle so
really kind of flatten it and make sure that it's circular before you wrap it in your plastic wrap
tip number nine is to plan ahead and make your pie dough before the day you are going to make
your pie pie dough needs at least an hour in the refrigerator to chill before you roll it out but
i actually really like to make it the day before so that it is just ready for me to go the next
day if you want to keep it in the refrigerator you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours
if you wrap it really well in plastic wrap or you can move it to the freezer and keep it
there for up to three months if you do freeze your pie dough you will want to take it from
the freezer put it in the refrigerator to thaw overnight about 24 hours before you want to use it
tip number 10 is when you are rolling out your dough think about focusing
your pressure on going across the dough rather than down into the table
i think this is where a lot of people struggle with their dough sticking too much to the table
is because they are kind of pushing down too far rather than focusing the pressure on going across
tip number 11 is to rotate your dough as you are rolling it out mostly it's going to make sure that
your dough is not sticking as you are rolling it's a great way to check and then you can also always
redistribute some flour under the dough as you do it so i give it a roll rotate it about 90 degrees
roll and just kind of do that over and over again and it's really going to help prevent sticking
now if you really want to you can roll your dough between two pieces of parchment paper if you don't
want to get flour all over your countertop and that can work well but i find it to be a little
bit easier just to do it right on the countertop because that way i can more easily watch the shape
it's being rolled in and make sure that i'm paying attention to how thin it is getting we're trying
to go for around an eighth of an inch thick tip 12 is that you want to make sure you roll your
pie dough wide enough that it is going to sit down into your pie plate without being stretched
so i like to hold my pie plate over my dough and make sure that i have a good inch to an inch and
a half all the way around the diameter and that is going to make sure that i'm not going to have
to stretch it to fit my pie plate actually if you look at the recipe for my pie dough you'll notice
that mine makes a little bit of a larger batch than most people's pie dough recipe does and
that's because i just want to make sure you have plenty of room so that you aren't stretching it
to fit your pie plate tip 13 is to make sure that as you put your pie crust in the pie plate that
you are not stretching it at all this is why we want to make sure that it's definitely big enough
but you kind of want to lift up on the edges and let it very naturally fall down into the pie plate
if you stretch it a lot to fit your pie plate it's going to shrink up in the oven and kind of
seize up so you want to be really careful with that so i like to just take the edges and hold
them up and let it very naturally fall down into the plate my tip 14 is in contrast to the bottom
crust i actually like to stretch the top crust a little bit what this is going to do is your
filling is going to naturally shrink a little bit in the oven and if you kind of stretch your
top crust it's going to shrink with it and you're not going to have that really big gap
in your filling when you cut into your pie so if you're doing a lattice crust or if you are doing
a full top crust give it a little bit of a stretch as you are fitting it to the top now
if you have never made a lattice crust pie before i actually have a very detailed tutorial for it
i will link that in the description and this pie that i am topping today is my cranberry apple pie
which i just recently published a full video and recipe for i will also link that for you
and tip number 15 is to bake your pie on a preheated surface this is really going to
help prevent those soggy bottoms that we all want to avoid when we are making pie
so i really like to preheat either a sheet pan or you can also preheat a baking stone in your oven
and then you're going to put your pie on the hot surface into the oven and that's really going to
make sure that that bottom crust sets really well and it doesn't become soggy i really hope you
found all of these pie crust tips helpful and if you have any other questions about making pie you
can leave those down in the comments section and i always try my best to answer them make sure you're
subscribed so you never miss a video and i will see you all next time with another baking tutorial