Everyone Is Wrong About Pie Dough

Whomever invented the phrase “pea-size pieces” in reference to cutting butter into flour to make pie dough should be forced to stand in the town square where local cooks can hurl failed pie dough at this ill-informed miscreant.

Let me explain.

In French cooking the fat is always cut into the flour fully, making a tender, short dough for tarts and the like. They even use the “fraisage” technique for some recipes — the dough is smeared on a counter to fully incorporate the fat and also to provide layers.

In the USA, however, somebody got the terrible idea that our pie dough should be flaky instead of short. To achieve this outcome, the instruction — from my 1941 “Boston Cooking School Cookbook” — is to rub the butter into the flour “until shortening is evenly mixed in bits no larger than peas.” Oddly enough, “Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book” offers a recipe that is a bit like puff pastry: The flour and lard is mixed and rolled out, then dabs of butter are sprinkled over it and rolled. So perhaps Fannie Farmer herself is the guilty party!

Now, all of the budding food scientist cooks will yell at me (as they have), saying that if you want a flaky pastry you need to not cut in the butter all the way. (The small pieces of butter melt and create steam which creates layering.) There is some truth to this. The problem, however, is that it makes a dough that is very hard to roll out, it can turn out tough since the flour is not fully coated with fat, and it’s no recipe for folks who rarely make pies. Leave this method to the experts.

Now for the confession! Some of our own recipes at Milk Street do call for those “pea-size pieces” — no organization is perfect! So, if you see that in the recipe, my suggestion is to fully cut in the butter. And make sure that your dough has enough water to hold together easily — you do not want dry dough.

Or, do the following. Use 8 tablespoons of fat per 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. For the fat, use half butter and half lard or shortening. (You can up the fat to 10 tablespoons if you want a very tender dough, but do not use the higher fat ratios for pre-baking a pie shell or tart; it will quickly lose its shape.) By the way, if you can get your hands on rendered leaf lard— it is the fat around the kidney in a pig — use that instead of shortening. It turns out the most amazing flaky pie pastry and the lard has zero porcine flavor. (But you can use solid vegetable shortening if you prefer.)

In the food processor, pulse the lard or shortening with the dry ingredients and then add the cold butter that has been cut into pieces. Process by hand or with a pastry blender until the butter is fully cut in and the flour looks slightly yellow and has a thicker, less floury consistency.

The final touch is the water. Once again, recipes say, “Add just enough water for the dough to hold together.” This is nonsense. Make sure that the dough really holds together well with no bits of flour left in the bowl. (Do not use the food processor for this — use a large bowl and mix with a rubber spatula or your hands.)

This dough can be used with any pie recipe, including a classic Double-Crust Apple Pie, or something custardy like our new Pumpkin Pie with Honey-Orange Whipped Cream or Maple-Browned Butter Pie. It also makes a great Crostata (a sort of freeform pie made on a baking sheet instead of a pie plate) or Tarte Tatin (apples baked in caramelized sugar under a blanket of pastry, then inverted).

The goal is to produce a pie dough that you can work with, one that you can easily roll out. Stop worrying about flakiness and focus on getting the job done. Once you get comfortable with pie dough, you can try the pea-size pieces route, but this is tricky business.

Two other pieces of advice: Make your pie dough the day before you need it and throw it in the fridge — it will be much easier to roll out. Second, if your dough is too dry, put it back in a large bowl, add a small amount of water, and knead it into the dough. This will work, although letting the dough rest a bit in the fridge before rolling also is a good idea.

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Christopher Kimball

Christopher Kimball is founder of Milk Street, which produces Milk Street Magazine, Milk Street Television on PBS, and the weekly public radio show Milk Street Radio. He founded Cook’s Magazine in 1980 and was host and executive producer of America’s Test Kitchen until 2016. Kimball is the author of several books, including "The Yellow Farmhouse" and "Fannie’s Last Supper."