Apron Strings Blog

This easy dough is great for tarts, pies and the like. Make sure to use very cold butter.

Ingredients

1/2 lb (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter

2 cups unbleached flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup ice water

Directions

Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes. Since butter softens rapidly with handling, return the cubes to the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes while you set up the food processor and gather dry ingredients.

Place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse a few times to combine.

Add the butter, tossing quickly with your fingers to coat each cube with flour, taking care not to touch the blade. This prevents the butter cubes from adhering to each other and helps them break apart and combine more evenly with flour.

Pulse 15 times, or, until the butter particles are the size of small peas.

With the motor running, add the ice water all at once through the feed tube. Process for about 10 seconds, stopping the machine before the dough becomes a solid mass.

Turn the contents of the bowl onto a sheet of aluminum foil, pressing any loose particles into the mass of dough. Roughly form the dough into a 7-inch disk.

Cover the dough completely with aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least an hour. The dough may be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks.

Makes 18-20 oz. of dough or, enough for 1 tart, 2 9-inch shells or 4 little tarts for 2.