All Butter Hand Pie Dough

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When it comes to making hand pies, I prefer to use an all butter recipe. First, the taste. The crust is far more central to the flavor in a hand pie, so all butter is the way to go here. An all butter dough is also more sturdy. The delicate texture I like from my typical pie crust would work fine, but the all butter dough has more body and behaves better when molding the pies around filling. This is an unscientific opinion, but my experience nonetheless. I use this dough anytime I’m making a hand-held version of a pie. You’ll see it in the Caramel Pecan Hand Pies, the Blueberry Lemon Bites and the Sour Cherry Frangipane Bites. I love hand held pies because it is so satisfying to see the dough show off and expand into layers of delicious pastry at the end. You can use this for a regular pie as well, but for some reason I live in two worlds using my go-to pie crust recipe for whole pies and this one for anything small and crust-forward.

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All Butter Hand Pie Dough

Servings: 2 9 inch crusts

Ingredients

  • 4 cups all-purpose flour 480 grams
  • 2 tsp fine salt
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 cups unsalted butter frozen and cubed
  • 3/4 cup ice water
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  • Place dry ingredients into a food processor or large bowl if doing by hand.
    • You will need a 12-cup food processor to do this recipe all at once. If you have a smaller one, cut the recipe in half and do two batches. Or prepare the dough by hand in a large bowl.
  • Pulse dry ingredients to evenly distribute the salt and sugar. By hand, whisk the dry ingredients to do the same.
  • Scatter frozen butter on top of the mixture.
  • Pulse in the food processor for about 1 second each time until the mixture looks like coarse meal but you still see chunks of butter. If doing by hand, use a pastry cutter, fork/knife or your hands to do the same.
    • For those using a food processor, use a butter knife to fluff the mixture around as you check the consistency. This helps make sure that no dough is stuck under the blade.
  • Continue until the mixture has pea-sized chunks of butter or a bit smaller.
  • Add about 4 tablespoons of ice water and continue short pulses or gently mixing together by hand. Keep adding ice water a tablespoon or two at a time until you have a consistent mixture that looks sandy with flecks of butter but holds together when pinched. I tend to use 10-12 tablespoons of water when making this dough.
    • Important: the mixture should not look like cookie dough. You are going to stop before it looks like this. The moisture content should feel consistent, but when you turn it into a bowl, it should pour out in crumbs.
  • Bring the dough together into two balls using your hands. Gently press into small discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour or up to three days. Freeze for up to three months.

Notes