The Art of Making Flaky Pie Dough: A Step-by-Step Guide

As I sit here in front of my camera, I'm excited to share with you one of my favorite recipes for making flaky pie dough from scratch. This method uses no equipment and only four ingredients, all of which can be found in most supermarkets. The process takes a mere 10 minutes, and the result is a tender crust that's perfect for pie-making.

First things first, I want to get started with the dry ingredients. I'm using one cup plus two tablespoons of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon of granulated sugar, and half a teaspoon of salt. Now, it may seem like a lot of salt, but trust me, it makes all the difference in the flakiness of the dough.

Now that I have my dry ingredients, it's time to add one stick of cold butter. Yes, use really cold butter – we're talking straight from the fridge. I don't want to worry about what you've read online about how big or small these pieces of butter need to be; just toss them in there and let's get started.

The first thing I do is toss the dry ingredients with the butter until it looks like a cohesive mixture. You'll know it's working because the flour is basically coating the butter, and you can tell because it's actually hard to push it into any shape. This is where the magic happens, folks – we're creating long thin sheets of butter that will give our pie crust its signature flakiness.

As I toss the ingredients together, I want to make sure there are still some big pieces of butter mixed in. Don't worry if it looks like a giant mess at this point; that's just part of the process. Once I've got everything combined, it's time to add three tablespoons of ice water and really try to distribute the water evenly.

Now, this is where things can get a little tricky. If the rolling pin starts to stick, don't panic – just add more flour and continue on. And remember, it's all about handling the dough as little as possible. I'm using my trusty bench scraper to scrape underneath the dough and flip it over whenever necessary.

I also want to make sure not to warm up the dough too much or overwork the flour. This is where experience comes in – you'll know when it's time to stop and let the dough chill for a bit. And that's exactly what I'm going to do now.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhow do you like my mic placement how do you like my t-shirt all right pough it's one of those things that intimidates people the method that I use uses no equipment it has four ingredients and it takes 10 minutes so this is 1 cup plus 2 tbspoon of allpurpose flour a teaspoon of granulated sugar half a teaspoon of salt so the first thing is just to toss the dry ingredients together one stick of butter this is really butter don't worry about anything you've read about how big or small these pieces of butter need to be and what I need to do now is just toss it and the the flour is basically coating the butter so this butter is properly cold and you can tell because it's actually hard to push it into any shape what I'm trying to do here is just get the butter into long thin sheets see how some butter is actually sticking to the rolling pin nothing to be scared of just scrape it off so I've got all these long sheets of butter it's still really nice and cold so it's flexible I'm going to pick everything up it looks light and Flaky and I'm I'm being quick about it because I don't want to overwork and I don't want the butter to melt next this is 3 tbspoon of ice water and I'm tossing it together I'm just really trying to distribute the water that I added so there's still some really big pieces there's some smaller pieces for most of this video you're going to look at it and say wow that looks like a giant mess looks like a hot mess Carla what are you doing this is where your pie dough begins if the rolling pin starts to stick I will add more flour and now I'm using the bench scraper I'm scraping underneath the dough and flipping it over I'm trying not to handle it too much with my bare hands because they're warm so I'm just going to add a little flour underneath so this is roll number two I always like to flour the pin over the dough and that way I'm sort of sprinkling it on top at the same time and you can see there's dry pieces out on the edges of the dough but the middle is starting to look like kind of creamy and holding together so I think there's just going to be one more flip all right so again folding it over one way this is perfect I'm trying not to warm the dough up and not to overwork the flour because that's what gives you a tough as opposed to a tender crust so this is where I want to stop you're going to chill this dough and as it sits in the fridge it's going to rehydrate this is a re angle and most pie plates are round but I'm actually going to shape it once I've got the Saran wrap the dough is finished for ingredients about 10 minutes flakiest pie dough ever does it look like a wet hot mess I mean it does but that's kind of the point it looks wrong but it's righthow do you like my mic placement how do you like my t-shirt all right pough it's one of those things that intimidates people the method that I use uses no equipment it has four ingredients and it takes 10 minutes so this is 1 cup plus 2 tbspoon of allpurpose flour a teaspoon of granulated sugar half a teaspoon of salt so the first thing is just to toss the dry ingredients together one stick of butter this is really butter don't worry about anything you've read about how big or small these pieces of butter need to be and what I need to do now is just toss it and the the flour is basically coating the butter so this butter is properly cold and you can tell because it's actually hard to push it into any shape what I'm trying to do here is just get the butter into long thin sheets see how some butter is actually sticking to the rolling pin nothing to be scared of just scrape it off so I've got all these long sheets of butter it's still really nice and cold so it's flexible I'm going to pick everything up it looks light and Flaky and I'm I'm being quick about it because I don't want to overwork and I don't want the butter to melt next this is 3 tbspoon of ice water and I'm tossing it together I'm just really trying to distribute the water that I added so there's still some really big pieces there's some smaller pieces for most of this video you're going to look at it and say wow that looks like a giant mess looks like a hot mess Carla what are you doing this is where your pie dough begins if the rolling pin starts to stick I will add more flour and now I'm using the bench scraper I'm scraping underneath the dough and flipping it over I'm trying not to handle it too much with my bare hands because they're warm so I'm just going to add a little flour underneath so this is roll number two I always like to flour the pin over the dough and that way I'm sort of sprinkling it on top at the same time and you can see there's dry pieces out on the edges of the dough but the middle is starting to look like kind of creamy and holding together so I think there's just going to be one more flip all right so again folding it over one way this is perfect I'm trying not to warm the dough up and not to overwork the flour because that's what gives you a tough as opposed to a tender crust so this is where I want to stop you're going to chill this dough and as it sits in the fridge it's going to rehydrate this is a re angle and most pie plates are round but I'm actually going to shape it once I've got the Saran wrap the dough is finished for ingredients about 10 minutes flakiest pie dough ever does it look like a wet hot mess I mean it does but that's kind of the point it looks wrong but it's right\n"