No one taught me how to make pie crust (or pate brisee). Throughout my twenties I viewed pastry crust as a mysterious shadow figure made by others, crafted only by people who wore aprons. I’m no expert but, despite my ineptitude and impatience, my food processor allows me to make consistently flakey and tasty crusts. In my book pie crusts are sorta like religion- the ritual is your own business as long as the results are good.
I keep all my ingredients as cold as possible. I cut up the butter and then toss it in the freezer as I prepare the rest of the ingredients. On hot days I’ve even tossed the flour and butter together and then thrown that into the freezer for fifteen minutes or so. Honestly, I used the chive vodka in this mostly because there is a tiny jar of it in the freezer waiting for me to make up a cocktail, and, what the heck? It might make a difference.
The yogurt added a nice tang and made the dough super easy to work with. I’ve got some sweet variations tumbling around in my head that I’m looking forward to trying once I can land on a filling.
Dill and Greek Yogurt Flaky Pastry Crust
Ingredients
- makes one standard crust
- 1/4 cup fresh dill
- 4 ounces Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp chive vodka
- 1 stick well chilled unsalted butter cut into quarter inch pieces
- 7 ounces unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- combine dill, yogurt, and vodka- set aside (I throw it in the freezer)
- combine flour and salt in food processor, give it a few whirrs to combine
- add butter and pulse 8-10 times in one second intervals until butter is about pea size
- add yogurt mixture. pulse for about ten seconds until yogurt is integrated and the mixture just begins to come together. do not let it form a ball. see accompanying photo for when I stop
- remove from food processor and form into a six inch round. wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes
[…] This recipe has a photo of what I mean by ‘just […]