Sour Cream Pie & Pastry Crust

Prep time: 20 minutes; Dough chilling time: 1 hour

Yield: Makes dough for 2 single crusts, or 1 double crust

This recipe makes enough dough for a top and bottom crust for a 9-inch pie.

The dough ratio is 1 cup flour: 1 stick butter: 1/4 cup sour cream: 1/2 teaspoon salt: 1 teaspoon sugar. These are the amounts for a single-crust 9-inch pie.

If you are making a 10-inch pie, use 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces, 1  1/4 cup) butter, 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sour cream for a double crust, or 1 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/4 sticks (5 ounces) butter, 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp sour cream for a single crust.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (260 g) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of salt (skip if using salted butter)

2 teaspoons of sugar (for sweet recipes, otherwise skip)

2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup, 8 ounces, 225 g) cubed

1/2 cup (115 ml) sour cream (full fat, NOT light sour cream)

METHOD

Soften butter, cut into cubes.  Whisk together flour, salt, sugar. In a large bowl.

With a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour until it resembles a coarse meal with some chunks of butter. Add sour cream to the flour-butter mixture and blend with pastry blender. 

Gather the pastry dough together into a large ball. Use a knife to cut the ball in half. Form into two disks.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes before forming into a pie crust.

 

When it's time to bake, remove dough from fridge, let sit for a few minutes, then roll out.  

You can use this pastry dough for unstructured rustic pies or galettes, or single or double crusted traditional pies. It can also be used for a savory pot pie.

Whether you use the dough for a galette or a double crust pie, it will be prettier with a light egg wash. Just whisk one egg in a small bowl, add a teaspoon of water, and brush lightly over the exposed crust with a pastry brush, right before baking.

 

This pie crust recipe is difficult to pre-bake. There is more fat in it than a regular crust, which can cause the sides to slump if you bake it without a filling. That said, I have successfully pre-baked this crust by freezing it for at least 30 minutes first, lining it with heavy foil, filling it 3/4 of the way with dry beans, then baking it at 350°F for 30 minutes.