Basic Pie Dough

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1/4 to 1/3 cup ice cold water

To prepare the dough by hand, combine the flour and salt in a stainless steel bowl, using a pastry knife mix well.

Add the cold butter cubes to the flour and mix in until the mixture begins to resemble a mealy mixture where the butter forms pea sized nuggets plainly visible in the flour. Add only enough ice water to pull the dough together. The water should be added to the flour slowly to ensure that only the minimum amount of water is used. Do not over mix the dough. When the dough has been mixed just sufficiently to combine the ingredients, form it into a ball and wrap in a piece of plastic and refrigerate for several hours.

When ready to use, lightly flour a pastry board and a rolling pin, and unwrap the dough. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and begin to roll out the first piece into the bottom crust.

Tamp down the dough with the pin and gently begin to roll out into a circular pie shape by rolling evenly outward from the center and turning the dough in small 1/8th turns to keep the rolling even. When the dough is rolled out to an even thickness and is about 12 inches and is about 1/8th-inch thick it is ready to be transferred to a 10-inch pie tin.

Lightly butter the tin, lift the dough with the rolling pin by partially rolling the dough up on the pin, center the dough in the tin and unroll. Pierce it in several places with the tines of a fork.

Roll the second half of the pie dough into a round shape slightly larger than the pie pan. Fill the bottom crust with your chosen fruit filling. Cover the filling, such as apple, with the top half of the pie dough. Using both hands, crimp the edges of the two crusts together to seal. With a sharp knife, make several crosshatch slits in the top crust. Brush with the egg wash and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 20 minutes.

Yield: 2 12-inch pie crusts

Prep Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes