Deep Dish, Double-Crust Pie Dough
Pie dough is simultaneously one of the simplest things to make in the kitchen and somehow made out to be complicated. You need 0 special equipment to make the dough, just a bowl, some utensils, and your hands. And more than that, the ingredient list is just flour, water, butter, some sugar, and some salt. So I am of the stance that every single person can make homemade pie dough. No culinary skills, no fancy machines, no talent needed, just an ability to follow my directions!
Although pie dough is very fundamental, a lot of people try to make it more complicated than need be. Some add vodka or vinegar to the dough to make it more tender (e.g. Alison Roman, Scheckeats). I don’t really find that necessary (and also adding vodka makes your dough expensive for no reason); you can make perfect dough with just ice water. Others demand a food processor (e.g. Martha Stewart), but that leads to much too fine of butter pieces, creating a shortbread-like dough instead of a flaky one. Hands work better. Finally, some call for making the dough, then rolling it out at a later point to create flaky layers (e.g. Claire Saffitz), which is just so inconvenient.
In my recipe, I keep the ingredient list spartan. I tell you to work the butter into the flour in a very specific way that creates both smaller pieces and flat, larger pieces of butter. This is what makes the dough sturdy yet flaky. And finally, I call for rolling the dough out into a long rectangle and rolling it back up onto itself twice. This process creates more butter layers in the dough, effecting a flakier end result. Low effort and low investment, that’s how I roll.
Tips
This dough is perfect for a deep dish pie plate (about 2” deep). If you’re using a standard dish pie plate (about 1” deep), you should use my Standard Pie Dough recipe.
Make sure your work counter is clean because you will be working with the dough briefly on it.
My biggest tip when working with pie dough is to keep everything cold. That’s not so much an issue when making the dough, more so when rolling it out, but it is still important to keep in mind. The butter needs to be chilled. You need to use ice water. And you need to work in a somewhat cool environment (i.e. not too warm where the butter will melt).
The difference between good pie dough and bad pie dough is how much water you add. You want to add just enough water to hydrate the dough to where it clumps together. Add any more and the dough could be tough and not tender. My directions give you guidance for avoiding that mistake, but keep that in your mind. After hydrating the dough, it should still look a little dry—that’s perfect. The flour will continue to hydrate as you roll it out to create the flaky layers and won’t be crumbly when you go to roll it out.
Use a larger, wider bowl than a smaller, narrower bowl for making the dough. A wider bowl allows you to more evenly hydrate the flour mixture with water because there’s more surface area.
A note on alternative flour: Swapping out 25% of the regular flour for another flour adds complexity to the dough. I really love using spelt flour for savory bakes and oat or almond flour for sweeter bakes. But it really is up to you. You may also use just regular flour. Note that this may alter the amount of water you need to add to the dough (could be a little more or less) to get it to the right hydration level.
1 recipe Deep Dish Double-Crust Pie Dough (2 discs)
Ingredients
18 tbsp (255g) unsalted butter, half of it cut into ½ in. cubes, half of it sliced thinly into thin square sheets, chilled
3 1/2 cup (420g) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp granulated sugar
Ice water
Directions
Fill a measuring cup with water and add some ice. Set aside. Lay out 2 good-sized pieces of plastic wrap and lay those on your counter, just to the side of your pie-making station.
To a large bowl add the flour, salt, and sugar. Whisk to combine. Add the butter cubes and toss with your fingers to coat each cube evenly in flour. Using your thumbs and index fingers, pinch and spread each butter cube into the flour. Repeat this process for each square cube. Once all the perfect cubes are gone, break up any bigger butter clumps so that there’s no piece larger than a hazelnut. Then toss in all your thin butter sheets. Toss those in the flour. Flatten them by pinching them, trying to get them into a very thin sheet. Do that to each sheet.
Drizzle in 12 tbsp. iced water, constantly stirring with a fork. When drizzling, make sure to hit the sides of the bowls and not just the center. Press the dough together; it should all hold together nicely (if not, continue adding iced water, little by little). Dump the dough onto your kitchen counter.
(Optional, but makes a flakier dough) Smoosh and flatten your dough mound into a vertical rectangle about three times longer than wide. Lightly flour the top of your dough. Using a rolling pin roll out the dough into a very long rectangle (exact length doesn’t matter). Using a bench scraper, starting from the top of the dough, scrape/flip the dough onto itself several times, rolling it up into a compact rectangle again. Turn the dough 90 degrees. Repeat that process again.
Cut the dough into 2 pieces, about a 60-40 split (around 520g and 340g if you’re weighing them to be precise). Place one piece of the dough onto each piece of plastic wrap. Wrap each piece tightly and flip over. Smoosh the doughs into the shape of the plastic wrap; they should be about 3/4 inch thick. Refrigerate for at least one hour, but preferably two hours before using. The dough will last in the refrigerator for up to three days or in the freezer in a freezer bag for up to two months. If freezing, make sure to thaw the dough overnight in the refrigerator before using.
