Pie Dough

Baking is like therapy for me. But better. Because at the end of the measuring/stirring/waiting, there is something amazing to eat.

When browsing the internet re: pie dough recipes, there seems to be a lot of conversation focused on the difficulty and stress of making it at home. People seem pretty worked up about the fact that pie dough is pretty easy to mess up - and there is plenty of debate on whether or not an all butter crust is the way to go. But like most things, making pie dough is only as difficult as you let it be.

A few tips worth noting:

• an all butter (vs. partial shortening) dough is the way to go. put the crisco away.
• make sure your butter is very cold (I put mine in the freezer for 20ish minutes).
• don't overwork it (you should feel like your dough is just barely combined).

If you want to do a bit more research on pie dough technique,  check out some tips and tricks on creating pie dough here, here, and here. If life's biggest stress is how to make the best pie dough, I think we've got it pretty good.

|Hillary

Pie Dough

yield - 1 pie crust

1 cup all purpose flour

4 oz cream cheese, cubed and chilled

3 oz unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

pinch salt

pinch sugar

Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse to combine. Add the cold butter and cream cheese to the food processor, and pulse until the mixer starts to come together. Dump the contents onto a clean surface and gather it into a ball. Wrap the ball in plastic and press it into a disc. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours before using.