Rye Pie Dough
If you’re grain-curious like me, you’re always looking for ways to incorporate a variety of them into your baked goods! Different grains have their places amongst different flavor profiles, and I can’t get enough of a fruit-forward pie with a nutty rye crust to compliment it.
Ingredients, makes one 9-inch pie
150 g all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
60 g rye flour
1/4 teaspoon + a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
8 tablespoons or 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
5 tablespoons ice water, plus more as needed
Instructions
Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together flours, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.
Place butter cubes into bowl with dry ingredients. Toss them in the mixture to fully coat them with flour. Make sure they are separated into individual butter cubes.
Using your thumbs, pointer and middle fingers, press the butter cubes to form butter discs, breaking up the cubes into smaller pieces. The biggest pieces of butter should be roughly dime-sized.
Using a fork to mix, add ice water, tablespoon by tablespoon, incorporating until there are no wet spots. Once you can squeeze chunks of dough and it holds together, turn onto a work surface.
Use hands to form dough into a rough square, about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap in plastic or beeswax wrap. Let dough hydrate and rest for at least two hours, up to two days.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle that is roughly three-times longer than it is wide. Once in this shape, do a letter fold, folding one third over the middle third, and the last third over that one. I learned this trick from Claire Saffitz, it helps create layers with the butter which will make for a flakier crust.
Wrap the dough again, and rest it for at least one hour.
Roll the dough out into a rough circle, dusting with AP flour to avoid sticking. The dough should be about 1/8 inch thick and 13 inches in diameter- big enough that when draped over a 9-inch pie dish, there is some overhang.
Place the dough in your pie dish. I prefer the method of folding the dough in half, picking it up, and placing it in the dish, making sure to center it before unfolding.
Trim the edges so that there is roughly 1/2 inch of overhang. Tuck that under itself, creating a smooth outer edge of the dough (doesn’t have to be a perfect circle!). Crimp or shape the edge however you please. My preferred pie dough involves crimping the edge by using my pointer finger and thumb on the outside edge, and my other thumb on the other hand, shaping from inside. I flour these fingers, and place one hand on either side of the dough, pressing my thumb into the dough where my forefinger and thumb meet on the other side of the dough. I learned the technique of “double crimping” from Roxana Jullapat. There is a saved story on her Instagram demonstrating this, but simply put, it is just crimping the outside using your thumbs and forefingers, letting it rest for some time once completed (I chill mine), and then doing it once more to tidy it up. I like this method a lot, as the crusts hold their shapes better when I use it.
Bake! This depends on your pie. Parbake if you need a partially baked crust, one that will finish baking along with the filling (like a custard). Fully bake your pie if you are using a filling that does not need to be baked (think banana cream).
Parbake: dock the dough using a fork and fill your pie with parchment paper or aluminum foil and pie weights (I use dried lentils!) Bake for 25 minutes at 325 F. Let pie and weights cool before removing and filling. Bake as instructed in the filling recipe.
Full bake: dock the dough using a fork and fill your pie with parchment paper or aluminum foil and pie weights. Bake for 50-60 minutes at 325, rotating the dough after 25 minutes. Let pie and weights cool before removing.