Canadian Living Butter Pastry

Submitted by Demelza

"I watched Elizibeth Baird from Canadian Living make a lemon tart using this recipe on the Steven & Chris show one day. I had been trying to find a good recipe for pastry using butter rather than oil, shortening or lard. I was not really pleased with any of the recipes I tried. I made this one, and it is now my go to pastry recipe. It just uses all purpose flour, and salted butter is fine as well, as there is no salt in the recipe. For those of you who want to use some whole wheat flour in it I woudl suggest whole wheat pastry flour. If you use it for a savory dish, omit the sugar from the recipe. I have found that you can make it in the food processor as well. You don't have to use frozen butter, just cold from the fridge. I am posting the recipe exactly as it was on the website. I do increase the flour up to 1 1/4 cups, and use just a bit more water then as well. The first time or two that you make it, just use one cup of flour so you can get a good feel for the pastry, then feel free to add the extra flour the next time if you want to. While it only makes a single crust, you can double the recipe with no problems. I have posted the cooking time for blind baking a single crust. Don't be alarmed by the number of steps, I have included directions for using a food processor as well. Once you try this pastry you will never buy another frozen pie shell again. With almost 5000 pastry recipes posted on the site, this may already be here somewhere, but I wanted to share it anyhow."

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 5
• Yields: 1 single crust pie
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1⁄2 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons cold water

directions

1. Whisk together flour and sugar.
2. Cut in butter using pastry blender or 2 knives to fine crumbs, leave a few pea size pieces.
3. Mix egg yolk and water together and drizzle over flour mixture.
4. Toss together with fork until dough clumps.
5. Form dough into ball, and flatten.
6. Roll out on floured surface & place in pie/tart tin.
7. Chill dough 30 minutes.
8. You can blind bake at 400° for 15 - 20 minutes till edges start to turn golden, or fill and bake as directed by the pie recipe you are using.
9. If making in a food processor, put flour & sugar in processor bowl, pulse to mix.
10. Add cubed butter and pulse till you have fine crumbs.
11. Drizzle egg yolk & water mixture through feed tube while mixing.
12. When dough starts to form, remove from processor bowl, and proceed as above.