How to make apple pie dough?

The actual preparation of, say, an apple pie starts with a crumbly dough. Making pie dough without (or with) a stand mixer can be daunting. But there are a few tricks to making pie dough.

Rule One: Keep the fats and liquid ingredients cold.

Unfortunately, without cold butter, we won''t be able to make pie dough. We want the butter to be cold so that when the cold butter hits the hot oven, the heat lifts the excess water in the butter and makes it evaporate quickly, creating a perfectly layered and flaky pastry.

2. Second rule: Work quickly.

Add the butter to the flour mixture with your fingers. This is done by pressing the butter into the flour with your fingers, especially your thumbs. Repeat this process quickly until a few pieces of butter are about the size of oat flakes. Make a well in the centre of the butter-flour mixture for the cold water. Stir the mixture with a fork or wooden spoon. At this point, don''t actually stir the dough, just toss the dough together to moisten each piece. If the dough is too dry, add more cold water and mix again. Note that the pie dough will not reach the right texture in the bowl. The dough will still need to be kneaded on the counter to get the right consistency.

3. Recipe for preparing the pie dough.

• 180 g flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• pinch of salt
• 225 g butter
• 6 tablespoons cold water (+ extra if the dough is too dry)

Preparation procedure:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold, grated butter to the flour mixture and work it in with your fingers. Quickly crumble the butter into the flour mixture, a few pieces of butter will be the size of oatmeal. Make a well in the butter-flour mixture and pour 6 tablespoons of cold water into it. Mix the dough with a fork, adding more water if necessary. On a lightly floured work surface, shake the dough mixture. If you find that the dough needs more water, add a little more. Press and knead the dough into a disc. Divide the dough in two and gently knead it into two parts. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle. Roll out the dough in a few strokes, then use your fingers to move the resulting circle on the floured surface. This ensures that the dough does not stick to the work surface. The circle will not be perfect. Try to avoid any cracks in the rolled-out dough, but if there are cracks, you can patch them with additional dough. When you roll out the dough and see it start to rise back, this means that the butter is heating up and you should stop rolling the crust. Gently lift the circle from the floured surface and place it in the pie pan. Place in the fridge while you roll the top crust.
• Roll out the top crust as you roll out the bottom crust. Move the dough occasionally on the floured surface to create a roughly even circle. Now you can fill the pastry with apples and make an apple pie, treat yourself to a plum and almond pie or make a classic blueberry pie.