Recipes

Food Processor Pie Pastry

:20 min

:1 hr 20 min

Yield 1 double crust or lattice pie or 2 galettes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cake and pastry flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp granulated sugar

1/2 cup cold Longo’s Unsalted Butter, cubed

1/2 cup cold lard or shortening, cubed

1 cold Longo’s Enriched Coop Large White Egg

1 tsp vinegar

Ice water

•Combine both flours, salt and sugar in food processor. Pulse to combine. Add butter and lard; pulse on and off 7 or 8 times until the mixture has a coarse crumb consistency with some larger pea-sized bits of butter and lard.
•Whisk together egg and vinegar in liquid measuring cup. Add enough ice water to measure 2/3 cup. Drizzle over flour mixture. Pulse 4 or 5 times until mixture comes together; do not let it form a ball. Turn out onto work surface. Knead once or twice and form into a ball. If making 2 galettes or 2 single crust pies, divide ball in half, wrap individually in plastic wrap and press into 2 disks; if making 1 double crust or lattice-topped pie, divide into two-thirds and one-third.
•Refrigerate for 1 hour before rolling according to recipe. (Make-ahead - Refrigerate for up to 24 hours or place wrapped disks in plastic freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months.)

Tips for the Perfect Pastry

•Anything smaller than a full-sized food processor cannot handle this volume of ingredients. If you do not have one that large, make the pastry by hand in a large bowl, cutting the fats in with a pastry cutter and tossing the liquid in with a fork; be careful not to overwork.
•To make ice water, fill a 2-cup liquid measure with ice and top up with water before you start making pie pastry.

Using some cake and pastry flour results in a tenderer pastry. Be sure to measure all flour properly

•If you chill the pie pastry for 24 hours, it will be too stiff to roll out; let stand at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes to soften.
•Sprinkle the work surface with flour before rolling out the pie pastry; sprinkle top of the pastry disk with flour as well.
•Using floured rolling pin, roll from centre of disk away from you; use a pastry scraper to lift dough from work surface and give it a bit less than a quarter-turn after each roll. Continue to roll away from you from centre of pastry, lift and turn, lightly flouring top of pastry and underneath pastry between rolls if needed. Roll to 1/8-inch thickness or slightly less.
•Don’t worry if your rolled-out pastry is less than perfectly round; if you’re using a pie plate, the excess pastry dough will be trimmed, and rough edges add character and appeal to a galette. The shorter strips cut from a pastry oval can serve as the strips at the edge of a lattice-topped pie.