It's a Texture Thing {Recipe: Sourdough Pie Crust}

This sourdough pie crust has a lovely texture. The sourdough discard makes for a light, flaky, and a bit crispy crust. Initially I thought using discard might be a little too sour, but turns out to have a nice mellow flavor. It works well with sweet or savory pies. 

Sourdough Pie Crust

The key to making a flaky pie crust is making sure everything stays cold and being careful to not over work the dough. 

1 cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), cold

2 teaspoons sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup sourdough discard, cold

Ice cold water

In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt; set aside. Cut butter into small cube and add to flour mixture. Using fingers, pinch and press together butter into flour mixture until  butter is well distributed with pea to chickpea size pieces of butter throughout. Using a fork, stir in sourdough discard until just combined. The dough is ready when it forms a shaggy dough and will comes together and hold. If the dough crumbly and won't hold together, it is too dry. Add ice cold water a teaspoon at a time until a shaggy dough is formed. Form the dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. 

Recipe yields a single 9" pie crust, double recipe if a double crust is needed. 

Directions for blind baking a single pie crust:

Roll out dough to a 1/8" thickness; place in a 9" pie pan.  Trim around dough around the pie pan to about a 1" to 1-1/2" over hang*, fold under along the rim and crimp. Add pie weights (I have a pie weight purchased from William Sonoma, but lining the crust with a round of parchment and fill with dry rice or dried beans to 2/3 full will work as well), then chill for 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 375ºF about 10 minutes before pulling pie crust from the fridge. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven, lift out pie weights, and prick the bottom with a fork. Return to oven and bake an additional 10-20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. 

*Note: save the left over dough for other uses, like individual single pot pies. I had enough crust left to cover 2 pot pies made in ramekins.