Landlord Tom's Pie Crust

Our landlords at the Lyndale Estates had the best habit of bringing over homemade goodies every so often. During the year we lived on Lyndale we received: homemade jam, homemade pickle, homemade pickled jalapenos, numerous pies and countless plates of cookies.  The pies in particular were outstanding!  Seriously, the. best. pie. crust. ever!  So, I could not help but ask for the recipe.  Here it is directly from Tom, our wonderful landlord.

Basic Pie Crust

(for a 9-in double pie crust or a 10-in pie with a lattice)

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups flour (the best to use is King Arthur’s All-Purpose white flour)

Pinch of salt

1 cup minus 1 tablespoon butter (best to use is Lurpak, unsalted—available at Lunds or Byerly’s or Kowalski’s)

¼ cup cold water

Method:

1.        Put flour and salt in a food processor.

2.       Cut butter into 1 tablespoon pieces.  Add butter to the above in 3 batches, processing only briefly each time.

3.       Add ½ the water and process briefly.  Add the second half and process just until it forms a ball.

My additional notes:

1.        I don’t use the food processor (too much trouble cleaning it up) since I find using a pastry blender and doing it by hand works just fine.

2.       The real secret to this recipe is the butter.  Lurpak is just one brand of European butter, but it’s all I ever use (it’s a Danish butter)  Another brand is Presidente, I think it’s called; but the secret is that European butter apparently have a slightly higher fat content than ones made in the U.S.

3.       The King Arthur flour is a silkier, softer flour, but I have used just regular flour, too, and the crust still turns out well.  I just use the King Arthur when I really want to impress guests.

4.       Just know that this recipe makes two 9-in pie crusts, if you’re making two open or one-crust pies, such as pumpkin or pecan.  Otherwise, as it says at the top, it will yield enough for a double crust pie.I always have just a bit of the dough left over, too ( good for cinnamon-sugar crisps!)