One Ingredient Makes the Flakiest Pie Crust

Warm hands are the enemy of a good pastry. The second the butter starts to melt, your crust turns tough. So I don't touch it at all. Hi, I'm Gemma Stafford, a professional chef from Ireland with over 20 years experience. And the pastry I'm showing you is the one I use every year for my holiday pies. Today I'm going to show you how a food processor does the hard part of pastry making the one ingredient nobody puts in their pastry and how to know the dough is ready without guessing. I'm delighted to say that this video is sponsored by Rodelle and they are the reason this secret ingredient is in my pie crust. I'm about to show you exactly what that ingredient is and once you taste this pie crust, you will never make pastry without it again. So in my kitchen, as much as I use my mixer, I actually use my food processor. For years, when I worked in professional kitchens, we always made our pastry and our doughs in food processors, because we knew the secret that it was fast, it was efficient, no hands, no greasy doughs, absolute perfection every time. So into the bowl of your food processor, we're going to add in our dry ingredients plain flour, you do not need pastry flour, which tends to be more expensive. And it's not always available plain flour, what we call in Ireland all purpose flour. Now for a little bit of sweetness, because this is a vanilla dough, we want to just enhance that vanilla a little bit. So we are going to add in a little bit of powdered sugar. Now for my sweet doughs. I do like to add powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar because granulated sugar can stay a little bit grainy whereas powdered sugar will completely dissolve in there, still adding sweetness and a little bit of moisture. And then we have a little bit of salt. Salt is super important in pastry because it's just a few ingredients and that being in there will really help the butter and the vanilla. Once your dry ingredients are in there pop on your lid. Little quick pulse. Just combine those ingredients. I love a food processor. I use it so much. Anytime I have to grate carrots for carrot cake or whatever it is, use the blade in the food processor makes my life so much easier. So our next ingredient is butter. And this is what I do. They do. Frozen butter. See this? Hard as rock. Cube it up nice and small. Frozen going in. When you're making dough by hand, using frozen butter can be very difficult unless you grate it in. Using the food processor does the work for you in seconds, giving you big lumps and small lumps, which is exactly what you want when it comes to pastry making. You don't want uniformed butter, you want to have texture like coarse breadcrumbs. So the lumps of butter when they are cold going into a hot oven, when it hits the heat, it It will create steam and that steam will create layers and a beautiful flaky pastry. So that's what really makes this dough stand out. Once your butter is in there, just give it a few pulses. Pulse a little bit. It does not take much. We don't want to overwork the butter. A few seconds. Come here to me, Joey. See this? Big lumps, small lumps. Do you remember that song? Big lumps, small lumps, some as big as your head. Give them a flick. Oh, was that pineapples? I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts. No. No? A few blitzes in the food processor gives you exactly what you're looking for. So those are our dry ingredients. Now let's talk wet ingredients. When it comes to pastry making, the wet is actually super crucial for a few different reasons. Flavor, how it evaporates, how it reacts, the results that it gives you. So for my pastry, I am going to start with a whole egg. Eggs bind, but they also add extra richness and extra fat, which is flavor. For pastry making, I like my egg to be nice and cold, just like my other ingredients. But using a whole egg and just a little bit of water, like I'm going to do also, nice cold water. If you add too much water into pie crust, it will evaporate while baking and that's what will shrink your pie crust. So people always ask, why did my pie crust shrink so much? And there's lots of different reasons, but one of the main ones is that there was too much liquid, like possibly water, that evaporated off your pie crust while baking. So you actually want a minimal amount of water if you're adding it because it evaporates and the egg won't. So to my wet ingredients, I'm going to add in my secret weapon and that is Rodelle pure Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract. The reason I choose Rodelle is because it has a really rich well rounded vanilla flavor and it really complements my recipes. You'll see online recipes that call for vodka in pie crust and what that alcohol does it inhibits gluten formation and it gives you a very tender crumb but vodka has no flavor, not everybody has vodka in their house, but here is a double whammy: alcohol-based but flavor real authentic vanilla. flavor, great quality to add to a sweet pastry to really enhance your dessert. So you get the best of both worlds. And this vanilla is extracted consistently from batch to batch. So you always know you're getting good quality and great flavor. You can easily shop Rodelle vanilla on Amazon. So add your extract. Straight into your liquid, give it a mix up. I'm going to turn on the machine, let it run, add in my liquid. And then when the dough starts to come together, I'm going to stop it. So when it comes together, just like this, it does not take long. stop the machine, it might look like it's a little bit dry. It's not, it is perfect. You know, the key to pie making is making it fast with no hands just like on the food processor, and not overworking the dough. So once you see it come together and start to clump in your food processor, Then all you have to do is turn it out onto your counter. bring it together with your hands just like this. You can press it to bring it together. I don't want to see kneading and you're going to do this swiftly. Put it into a disc. I like to flatten it out so it chills faster. Wrap it in cling wrap and pop it into the fridge. When you're pulling your dough together, it looks like it might be a little bit dry. do not worry, push it together with your hands, wrap it up, it's going to rest in the fridge for a minimum of an hour. What happens with pastry is that once it relaxes, it releases liquid. So that bit of flour will actually hydrate so it's better to be on the drier side than the wetter side. I'm going to pop this into the fridge. Give it a minimum of an hour, it can actually live in the fridge for up to two days and can be frozen for up to eight weeks. This is a double pie crust. So if you're making a double crust pie, this is perfect. Or you can divide it in half and you have two crusts for the price of one. While our dough is resting, let's answer some hotline questions because pastry can be a stressful subject, especially when you're new to making it. So here's a great one: how do I know when I've added enough liquid? Now all recipes are different, your flour might absorb liquids differently than my flour. Add enough liquid until it just comes together, then stop. Do not pour in all the liquid, add in a little bit at a time, the majority of it, blend. If it looks like it's coming together, do not add more. If it seems like it's way too dry, add a little bit more. But remember what I said, it will hydrate later. Bring it together with your hands. Let it sit. Wrap it up. Can I make this ahead? Yes. And let me tell you my secret. When I'm making pie crust, what I do is I make it in the food processor, get it into the fridge, leave the food processor dirty. I give it a little bit of a wipe. Make them again. And then I don't have to wash the food processor until the very end. So it actually really cuts down on the wash up, which saves me a lot of hardship. Can I make it without a food processor? Yes, you can. You can make it by hand. No problem. I recommend a pastry blender, which is a little bit more wrist work, but you'll get a really good result. But for the best next pastry, like five star result, you're talking food processor, that's it. When your dough is chilled and relaxed it's ready to be rolled. You'll notice with this dough it is really easy to handle and roll out, it is not crumbly, it is not stiff, it just really is easy to work with, which makes your life so much easier when it comes to the holidays and pie making. I've made hundreds of pies over my career as a pastry chef, and one of the best things I ever learned was how to move pastry. Roll it over your rolling pin, then roll it off your rolling pin, straight into your pan. Move it gently. Taking care not to rip it into the bottom of the pan. For years I always struggled to get like that perfect uniform finish look on my pie crust and then I realized what I needed. Scissors. Use the scissors to cut around the dough. Gives you a nice smooth line. The one thing you don't want to do is cut away too much pastry and then you don't have enough to work with. For some bakers, the struggle isn't with the pie crust making, it's actually the decoration. So I like to keep it really simple. I have a few ideas. One of them is to use a back of a spoon to make that indentation in your pie crust. Keeping it real simple, no fancy tools, getting a beautiful result at the end. Just with this simple little tool and finish, it really elevates our vanilla pie crust. So not only do we have an amazing crust with great flavor, it looks great too. When it comes to the busy holiday season and everyone is in the kitchen, this is a pastry crust that you can rely on to come together every time and yield amazing results. It's a tender buttery pie crust with beautiful notes of vanilla. Very unique, very special, but so easy to make. When you use this pastry to make your holiday pies this season, they are sure to stand out. This recipe will be your go-to every year. The simplicity of this crust is great, but I also love the versatility. One of my favorite pies is a traditional chess pie, a custardy filling, but paired with the vanilla pastry, it is a winning combo. I love this vanilla pastry so much that I used it as part of my mini holiday pie video. I made apple, pumpkin, chocolate pecan, and boy did they stand out. Oh my gosh, I adore this pastry and I know you're going to too. Thank you so much to Riddell for sponsoring this video and the vanilla I used today can be found in the description box below. You can link straight to Amazon. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you back here next week for mini pies. See you then.