Continued From Here

 "That flat, thin piece of fat acts as a spacer between dough. The steam comes out and puffs it apart. It cuts in fine, melts instantly, flattens out dry and makes a tender, extremely flaky crust."

 The critical step is combining the flour and butter. The fats are cut in small pieces, mixed in a bowl with the flours, then refrigerated for at least 10 minutes. Keeping the fats cold is essential. At room temperature they melt and any hope of flakiness is lost.

 If ever during the mixing process the fat seems to be too warm, refrigerate for about 10 to 15 minutes to return to a workable temperature.

 After the mixture is cool, Corriher dumps the mixture in a pile on a flat surface.

 "It's a mess," she says. "Put it on the counter and flatten the butter."

 Unlike other pie crust recipes, the aim is not to mix the flour and fat until it resembles coarse meal. Corriher says you want lumps that can be flattened and creating large flakes when cooked. Too fine pieces of fat just melt.

 The dough will not hold together at this point but Corriher says, "Just pile it all back together, scrape off the rolling pin, and soon you'll get a mass of flake things -- butter coated with flour. Turn in the sour cream and you got a fabulous crust, once you get over the initial mess of butter and flour."

 Sour cream? Corriher explains the acidic content helps break down the gluten proteins helping tenderize the crust.

 One last tip from Corriher has to do with prebaking the pie crust.

 "Have two pans the same size," she says. "Roll out the crust and press it down good because it will shrink some. Then put a sheet of wax paper on top, place the other pan inside and bake upside down."

 She explains that when the crust is prebaked right side up, the sides can sag before the dough proteins set well enough to hold a shape.
 

 Flaky Crisp Crust

Published 11/15/1997

Four steps to finishing a pie crust:

1. Adding liquid to dry ingredients until it just sticks together.

2. Rolling out dough to trap fat between layers of flour.

3. Folding dough into quarters and transferring to pie plate.

4. Trim edge with knife and patching any holes.