FOOD NEWS
The Secret Ingredient To Get A Tender, Buttery Pie Crust
By Betsy Parks
Although the recipe for pie crust is relatively simple — flour mixed with fat and water — the technique of handling the dough and rolling out the crust usually messes people up.
It's easy to overwork the dough, but if you swap the water with sour cream, it will be able to handle a little more folding and rolling while still being tender and flaky.
When you use sour cream instead of water, you won't develop as much gluten, the sticky protein formed when wheat flour is exposed to water and mixed.
Gluten develops as the dough is kneaded and rolled. You don't want much gluten to form in a pie crust, just enough to keep the dough together when you roll it.
You can easily alter an existing pie crust recipe. While sour cream can't be substituted exactly 1-for-1 for water, you only need about a quarter of a cup for a single crust.
Add the cream after you've mixed all the butter or shortening with the flour. Always use full-fat sour cream or European sour cream, which has a higher fat content.