Pate Brisee

Note: YOU WILL NEED A DIGITAL SCALE AND A METRIC MEASURING CUP IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS PASTRY. Follow the rules for French cooking: reading the recipe twice and then assembling and prepping the ingredients. This is not a quickly made pie crust, it’s a French pastry. The actual 􏰀time spent working comprises only about 30 minutes; the remaining roughly 4 hours is spent waitng for the dough to chill and the brust to bake, but the ti􏰀me and effort are very noticeable and well worth it. Throughout the dough making process, you must keep all ingredients as cold as possible to prevent the bu􏰂tter from melting􏰀.

Ingredients:

• 250 g all purpose flour, si􏰁ed a􏰁er weighing

• 168 g cold bu􏰂er (not so􏰁ened), diced 1⁄2” and chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes

• 36 g cold bu􏰂er (not so􏰁ened), sliced 1/8”. Separate the slices and chill in the freezer 30 minutes.

• 3 g Kosher salt

• 90 ml ice water (Place an ice cube in water, let stand 7 minutes. Remove ice, then measure)

• OPTIONAL: 200 g granulated sugar, ONLY if cooking a sweet pie (if using sugar, reduce the blind baking 􏰀me by 10 minutes)

Instructions:

1. Place the blade and bowl of a food processor in freezer for 3 minutes. Remove and add flour, salt, and chilled cubes of bu􏰂er. Put back in freezer for 1 hour or un􏰀l all is thoroughly cold. You must keep all ingre‐ dients as cold as possible throughout the dough‐making process. Assemble the food processor and pulse un‐ 􏰀l coarse crumbs are visible; bits of bu􏰂er should be roughly pea‐sized. Add the chilled bu􏰂er slices. Add water a li􏰂le at a 􏰀me and mix just un􏰀l dough comes together smoothly, no more than four one‐second pulses. DO NOT POUR THE WATER IN ALL AT ONCE. Trickle the water in – you may not need to use all of it.

2. Remove dough from processor bowl; divide the dough in half. Form each half of dough into a smooth ball. Flour hands and board as needed. Press each ball into a disk about 4 cm thick. If making a double‐crust pie, wrap, refrigerate, and reserve 1 dough disk for using as the top crust. Wrap the disks in plas􏰀c and refriger‐ ate for at least 2 hours. This allows the flour to hydrate and prevents the dough from shrinking, warping, and pulling away from the pie dish when you bake it. The dough disks will be very firm when you remove them from the refrigerator.

3. Flour your work surface. Star􏰀ng with your rolling pin in the centr of the disk, roll rowards the edge ONCE in one smooth mo􏰀on. DO NOT PRESS DOWN HARD. DO NOT ROLL BACKWARDS. Li􏰁 the dough and rotate it one‐quarter turn. Again, star􏰀ng with your rolling pin in the center of the disk, roll towards the edge ONCE in one smooth mo􏰀on. DO NOT ROLL BACKWARDS. Repeat this process un􏰀l you have rolled the dough disk out into a circle approximately 4” wider than your pie dish (2” from the edge of the pie dish at all points).

4. Roll‐out dough on floured surface un􏰀l about 3 mm thick in the center, tapering to a thinner edge for the outer 2”. Place the dough in pie dish and nold dough into desired shape in the dish. Fold edges under the sides at the rim of the dish OR allow the dough to hang over the dish’s rim and trim away excess dough. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least one hour. Three hours is the op􏰀mum amount of 􏰀me and will yield a flakier crust. It should be covered in plas􏰀c wrap a􏰁er the first hour, or once the dough has hardened.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT DOCK (PERFORATE) THE CRUST. If making pecan or apple pie, blind baking is not necessary; just add filling to dough shell and bake as needed. For quiche, pumpkin pie, and other liquid fill‐ ings, blind bake to ensure a blaky, crispy bo􏰂om crust that won’t leak; then fill and bake as needed. To blind bake: place weights on dough. Fla􏰂en a sheet of aluminum foil over the crust, making sure that the foil covers the edges of the crust. Fill en􏰀rely with pie weights or dry beans (all the way to the top edges of the pie dish). Bake at 3500F for 45 minutes. Remove from oven. Remove the foil and weights. Bake anoth‐ er 5 minutes for a perfectly crispy, flaky crust. Allow to cool 15 minutes or un􏰀l the crust is cool to the touch, then fill and bake as your recipe instructs.