Only the Best Brisée Ever

This is my favorite dough recipe when making crusts for fruit pies.  Not so much when making crusts that require baking before being filled though–i.e. pumpkin pies, lemon meringues, and custards.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon sugar

2 sticks cold salted butter (So many recipes call for unsalted butter, but I think that’s ridiculous.  This just save you from having to add salt later.)

1/3 cup to 1/2 cup vodka that’s been in the freezer

Vodka?  Trust me.  I learned this trick from a Czechoslovakian plutocrat’s wife.  The viscosity of the cold vodka is better for binding dough than the viscosity of ice water which is what most plebian pie crust recipes employee.

Method:

Cut the butter into small cubes .

Add the flour, sugar, and butter to a food processor and blitz until the ingredients resemble coarse meal.  Next add the vodka, but only a little at a time while the processor runs.  Note that you needn’t use all of it.  Less is more where the liquid’s concerned.  Process until the dough just holds together.  Form the dough into two disks.  Cover in plastic and refrigerate.

This recipe will yield one pie with a top and bottom crust or two pies with only a bottom crust.