Buttermilk Pie Crust

 

I realize this is essentially a duplicate share but hey, what can I say, I wanted to separate out the Buttermilk Pie Crust from the Buttermilk Crusted Apple Pie recipe because it is that good and it deserves its own searchable pie crust post.

Too, I realized I don’t have a single pie crust recipe on this site of its own.  Yikes, what a horrible oversight!

It truly is one of the very best, easiest pie crusts I have ever made.  Really.

And this coming from someone with Dough Anxiety.  Which is a totally very real thing.

Every time, it's reliable, it's not a monster to try and work, it bakes up crispy and flaky and buttery and is the mmmm very perfect foil for not only that Apple Pie recipe, but surely for many a fruit pie.

Probably most any pastry type crust pie.

I need to make more pies.

It works terrifically for the Apple Slab Pie.  Surely if you take the blueberry topping from the Blueberry Cheesecake Pie and drop it into this crust, you'll have one hell of a blueberry pie.

Uh oh, now I'm going to hear from Mike and my family....why Becky why have you not done that for us??

Ok ok, sorry sorry, I will, I will!

It would probably work beautifully for a galette.  Or with the Rustic Apple Tart though I'm averse to messing with that recipe as it is absolutely impeccable as it is.

I should try it with Mike’s Peach Pie as I have not though I suspect if I tinker with Mike’s Precious, I’ll be in some seriously hot water. 

Huh, it’d probably work in that Pumpkin Pie I’ve got for you too…ok, lots of pies!  Give it a whirl and let me know!

Anyway.  It's a masterful crust.  And it's worth your time, attention, and baking.  It deserves a place of honor in your recipe collection. 

Man, I really cannot learn my lesson to avoid typing food related words when hungry and/or desiring all of these recipes I'm mentioning.  Ok, I'll be back.

All right!  Hungry issue resolved. 

Ok!  Buttermilk Pie Crust.  So good.

And don't forget, if you want to get deep into baking lots and lots which of course I wholeheartedly recommend doing, you can make your own perpetual homemade buttermilk.

This crust I normally bake in a glass pie dish,* mainly so I can see what’s going on. 

As I mentioned previously, glass baking dishes come with their own set of dilemmas. 

To sort of counteract the glass and its slow heating nature, using a baking or pizza stone* practically guarantees thee most perfect results:  flaky, tender, browned, crispy. 

And, of course, as the name implies, Buttermilk Pie Crust, the buttermilk subs for the normally called for ice water.  Just put the measuring cup with the buttermilk in the freezer for a few minutes to ensure it’s super chilly.

Start by cubing up the entirety of the butter.  No need to be exact about your cubes; cube-ish-like is fine.

Pop both the cubed butter and the measured out buttermilk into the freezer for a few minutes and head back to the counter to prep the dry ingredients.

Grab a large bowl and fluff all the dry together in there.

Toss in that extra chilled butter and have at it with a pastry cutter.*  Mine is still the Kitchen Innovations one* and my knuckles are always safe.

You can do this with a food processor;* be judicious about it and avoid over-blending.

Pour the buttermilk in and stir it around with a fork.  It'll start to come together but it'll still be pretty loose. 

Give the crumbles a small pinch to see if everything holds together.  If it seems on the dry side or isn't holding itself together, add another tablespoon of buttermilk, see if that does the trick.  If not again, add a bit more until you get to the point where it does hold together.  You're not looking for a wet dough though.

Dang camera focusing on the wrong thing but you can kinda tell, the pinch.

Toss a light dusting of flour across your work surface and dump the contents of the bowl onto it.  Keeping your hands mostly off the dough, scoop it together into a sort of ball-ish shape.

I know you need to use your hands to work the dough but we're trying to keep it as cold as possible still, so less touch is more.

Give the dough a few kneads, form it into more of a ball-ish shape, then slice it in half.

Kneaded.  Lightly.

Wrap each half up in environmentally-unfriendly plastic wrap (what is a good solution here?), flatten it out to fill the wrap, and pop the halves into the fridge.

Too, while a little harder to roll at the moment, you can also roll the halves out, placing one in the pie dish, cover and chill, then roll the other half out and around your rolling pin, cover and chill.

Let the dough relax and chill for an hour at minimum and you can prep this dough three days ahead of time.  No doubt you can freeze it too but that I personally have not tested as when it's pie making time, it's time!

When you're ready to go, if you haven't pre-rolled, roll* the halves out to the sizes desired on a lightly floured work surface, set one half in the dish, fill, cover with the other rolled half and it's bake time!

Mmmm.  I really need some pie now. 

Buttermilk Pie Crust!  Total winner!

Don't forget to track down that Buttermilk Crusted Apple Pie recipe here as I know you're gonna need it now!

*The pizza stones, pie dishes, pastry cutters, food processors, and rolling pins are Amazon affiliate links.  The Kitchen Innovations pastry blender is a Target affiliate link.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.