Making a crust from scratch for homemade pies and tarts may seem like a daunting task, but the process is simple. The taste and texture of a homemade crust are worth your effort!
Pie dough is made from just a few basic ingredients: flour, fat, salt, and liquid, in slightly different ratios. Some recipes have the inclusion of additional ingredients such as sugar, eggs, lemon juice or vinegar, and baking powder and/or baking soda. All-purpose flour is typically used, but can be a blend using cake, pastry, and/or bread flours. The fat used is solid and cold, being lard, shortening, or butter. Oil crusts are made using different mixing techniques. The liquid used is typically ice-cold water.
Pie dough is classified by the kind, amount, and method of the fat’s incorporation into the dough. Success or failure depends on keeping the ingredients cold, how the mixing methods used to incorporate the fat, and how the gluten in the wheat flour is developed. Their resulting textures are meant to be flaky and light or compact and crumbly (mealy), and always tender, with a golden brown color, and a flavor good enough to eat by itself.
Traditional American piecrust is made from short dough containing few ingredients, being flour, fat, salt, and water. The ingredients fuse to produce a golden, buttery crust with delicate flakes and divine tenderness. The fat is cut or rubbed into the flour until their particles resemble the size of peas. The ingredients should be kept cold and mixed only until combined. Overmixing creates a crust that is hard to work with and that is tough instead of flaky and tender. The flakiness of the pie crust depends on the flour-to-fat-ratio; the more flour used, the harder the baked crust. Little or no flour should be used when it is rolled out.
Pâte Brisée (pat bree-ZAY) is the French term for “broken,” referencing the broken pieces of fat in this shortcrust’s dough. Think of it as the standard French crust. The ingredients are very similar to American pie dough but the incorporation of ingredients is slightly different. It is made with one part liquid (typically water), two parts fat, and three parts flour, by weight, and can be mixed with a food processor or a paddle attachment with a stand mixer more thoroughly until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. The result is a crust that is both finer of crumb and stronger than an American pie crust, but lacks a pie crust’s flakiness. This dough is often baked “blind,” meaning it is baked before adding the filling. This dough is ideal for savory pies, tarts, and quiches.
Pàte Sucrée (pat soo-CRAY) means “sugar dough” in French. It is made with one part liquid, two parts fat, and three parts flour, by weight. It generally contains one egg for every pound of flour and may include additional flavoring ingredients such as salt, lemon juice, or vanilla extract. It’s normally made via the creaming method: the sugar and the butter are creamed together in a mixer, yolk or whole egg is added, and the flour is blended in. One of the tricks to making a perfect crust is chilling it twice – after you form the dough into a disc, and then again once the dough is in the pan. It creates a light, fine, strong, cookie-like crumb that will hold liquid fillings without leaking. It is the definitive French dough for sweet desserts. Blind baking is advised before filling. Use this pie crust for pies, tarts, and tartlets that have a sweet filling.
Pâte Sablée (pat sah-BLAY) is the richest dough, which is used mainly for desserts. Sablée translates as “sand,” which is befitting its crumbly, less flakey, and cookie-like texture. It is a delicate dough that is usually made by creaming the fat with sugar, then mixing in eggs, with the flour added at the end. The addition of almond flour in many sablée recipes reduces gluten formation even further and adds to that delicate texture, making sablée sometimes challenging to roll out. When lining a tart tin or pie plate, chefs suggest pressing the dough in, instead of rolling the dough and transferring it as you might with other doughs. This dough is usually baked blind and then filled after it has cooled. This crust is perfect for every kind of dessert tart, from fruit pies to cheesecake.
There are many tips and tricks for the perfect pie crust, but like most things, it comes down to practice. Practice makes perfect, and store-bought pie crust can’t even compare to the homemade version.
Written by Vicki Hayman, MS, University of Wyoming Extension Nutrition and Food Safety Educator
Sources:
- www.craftybaking.com, www.masterclass.com, www.thespruceeats.com