I just finished making this pie dough from Kamran Siddiqi's latest baking cookbook "Handmade Baking". It was a dream to make/handle and the fraisage guaranteed little specks of butter through out. My biggest problem when making crust is determing how much liquid to add but the quantity given in the recipe worked perfectly. I think I'll have the chance to use the dough next week when our nieces/nephews and their beaus join us to dinner.
This dough comes together using a classical French smearing technique called fraisage.
• 2 cups plus 1 heaping Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
• ½ tsp. fine grain sea salt
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ in cubes
• 1/3 cup very cold milk
• 1 egg yolk, cold
To make the dough by hand:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Toss in the butter. Use your fingertips to quickly rub together the butter and flour mixture until the butter pieces are the size of chickpeas.
In a glass measuring cup, mix together the milk and egg yolk and add them to the flour mixture all at once. Mix briefly.
To make the dough in a food processor:
In the bowl of a food processor, briefly pulse together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Add the butter and pulse until butter pieces are the size of chickpeas
In a glass measuring cup, mix together the milk and egg yolk and add them to the flour mixture all at once. Give the mix a quick pulse (I gave several).
Drop the shaggy mass of dough onto a clean work surface (I poured it into a large, rimmed metal cookie sheet.). Use the palms of your hands to smear the butter and flour in the dough from one end of the pile to the other. Repeat this until a somewhat structured dough forms. (I used a pastry scraper to bring the dough back to the center and resmear as needed). Repeat this until a somewhat structured dough forms.
Divide the dough in half. Form each half into a disk and cover it well in plastic wrapper. The dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen up to 2 months
This dough comes together using a classical French smearing technique called fraisage.
• 2 cups plus 1 heaping Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
• ½ tsp. fine grain sea salt
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ in cubes
• 1/3 cup very cold milk
• 1 egg yolk, cold
To make the dough by hand:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Toss in the butter. Use your fingertips to quickly rub together the butter and flour mixture until the butter pieces are the size of chickpeas.
In a glass measuring cup, mix together the milk and egg yolk and add them to the flour mixture all at once. Mix briefly.
To make the dough in a food processor:
In the bowl of a food processor, briefly pulse together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Add the butter and pulse until butter pieces are the size of chickpeas
In a glass measuring cup, mix together the milk and egg yolk and add them to the flour mixture all at once. Give the mix a quick pulse (I gave several).
Drop the shaggy mass of dough onto a clean work surface (I poured it into a large, rimmed metal cookie sheet.). Use the palms of your hands to smear the butter and flour in the dough from one end of the pile to the other. Repeat this until a somewhat structured dough forms. (I used a pastry scraper to bring the dough back to the center and resmear as needed). Repeat this until a somewhat structured dough forms.
Divide the dough in half. Form each half into a disk and cover it well in plastic wrapper. The dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen up to 2 months
