cooking / desserts

All-Purpose Pie Dough

serves 2 disks (2 single-crust pies or 1 double-crust pie) · 1 hour 15 minutes · 15 minutes hands on · medium

Why This Works

Most pastry recipes warn against overworking the dough, but it also has to be worked enough to hold its shape. The egg yolk scrambled into the ice water helps a great deal there, even in its tiny measure — as does a good, strong measure of fat from both butter and shortening. The visible pebbles of butter are what become flaky layers in the oven.

Ingredients

2½ cups all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½-inch cubes
2 Tbsp vegetable shortening, cold
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 tsp cider vinegar
¼ cup ice water (from ¾ cup ice water)

Method

Combine dry ingredients and fats. Using your fingertips or the pulse function of a food processor, blend the flour, fats, and salt until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. There should be pebbles of butter throughout.
Add wet ingredients. Stir the egg yolk and vinegar into the ¼ cup ice water. Drizzle 4 tablespoons of this mixture over the dough and gently stir or pulse to combine. Squeeze a golf-ball-size bit of dough — if it doesn't hold together, add a little more liquid and check again. Repeat as necessary.
Work the dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gather into a rough ball. Divide the ball in half, then divide each portion in half again, and again, to create eight portions. With the heel of your hand, flatten each portion once or twice to expand the pebbles of butter, then gather everything back into one ball and divide it in half.
Chill. Flatten each half into a 5- or 6-inch disc, dust lightly with flour, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 60 minutes.

Notes

Cold is key: keep the butter and shortening very cold for flaky layers.
Don't fear working it: the yolk lets the dough take handling without toughening.
Make ahead: refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months (thaw overnight in the fridge).