Flaky Pie Crust with 100% Freshly Milled Wheat Recipe - Grains and Grit (2024)

FAQs

What is the best flour to use in flaky pie crust? ›

What kind of flour makes the best pie crust? Well, not high-protein bread flour! Use that for your chewy bagels. What you want for pie is flour that yields a tender, flaky crust, which means medium-protein all-purpose flour or low-protein pastry flour.

The pros: Butter has the best flavor. A butter pie crust forms light, lofty, flaky layers while it bakes. The flakiness comes partially from the water content of butter, which evaporates as the pie bakes and turns to steam, separating and puffing up the layers in dough.

Pastry Flour

Its fine texture makes it easy to blend with other ingredients. Due to these qualities, pastry flour creates flaky, tender, mouthwatering goods.

The process of making a flaky pastry involves “cutting” one quarter of the total fat into the flour such as a pie dough till it forms what resembles coarse meal. Proper incorporation of the fat, in this step, provides flour lubrication and restricts or at least delays its quick absorption of added water.

Examples of products Characteristics of the pastry

Rough puff pastry Sausage rolls, savoury tarts, pies, Flaky pastry, high quantity of fat ratio fat::flour—3:4. Hot water crust Pork pie. Dark in colour, made using boiled fat and water mixed with flour.

Choosing between shortening and lard comes down to personal preference. Both create a flaky, tender crust, are semi-solid, and are 100% fat. Swap one for the other in recipes. If you want to add additional flavor to the dish, lard is the right choice.

All things being equal,” she says, “there's more fat per ounce of shortening than butter, and because shortening has a higher melting point than butter, it's more forgiving to work with, so it might give the appearance of more tenderness.” But any pie crust should have enough fat, no matter the source, to produce a ...

Start with chilled ingredients

Butter creates a sturdy, crisp pie crust. For this, it is important to keep all ingredients cold which will inhibit the development of gluten in the flour. Use butter right out of the refrigerator and add ice-cold water to make the dough.

What is flaky pie dough made of? ›

Pie Crust Ingredients

Flour: This flaky pie crust recipe starts with all-purpose flour. Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the flavor and promotes a tender, moist crust. Butter: Cold butter adds rich flavor and creates steam as it melts, ensuring a perfectly flaky finished product.

For the flakiest pastry, be sure your fats (butter and vegetable shortening) are very cold. Before you start your dough, dice the butter and portion the shortening into a few clumps and place the fats on a plate, then cover with plastic wrap.

I always chill my dough for at least 2 hours before rolling out, and then chill again for at least 1 hour after shaping in the pie pan. There are undoubtedly faster methods out there, but this is what I've found to work best for me in terms of maintaining pretty crimps and the overall shape of the crust.

As the fat is mixed with the flour, it is warmed slightly. Then, the water is poured in, and the ice-cold temperature of the water prevents the fat from warming any further, which could potentially melt it into the flour rather than retaining the small bits of fat.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Tip: Chilling hardens the fat in the dough, which will help the crust maintain its structure as it bakes. And the short rest before rolling relaxes the dough's gluten, helping prevent a tough crust.

Plain flours are best for pastry. The gluten strands in bread flour are stronger than plain flour and can make pastry tough to roll out. If you used the wrong flour try resting the dough for half an hour to relax the gluten then follow our rescue tips below.

Unbleached all-purpose flour is typically chosen for standard pie crusts. It must be handled appropriately to yield a crust that is both tender and flaky. Too much flour can create a tough or dry crust; not enough may flour may lead to a wet crust that shrinks upon baking.

Pastry Flour

Falling between all-purpose and cake flour, pastry flour is also made from soft wheat, but with a 7–9 percent protein content. It produces both the tender crumb and flaky texture that is desired in most pastries. It should not be used for baking bread because it has too little gluten.