I have discovered the secret to perfect pie crust, it really is true. If you use something called the 3-2-1 method, it comes out amazing, every time, swear. It’s a method based on ratios, which in baking is very important. The beauty of it is you can scale it to however many pies you want to make, and any size.
So here’s what you do, weigh (yes I said weigh, get a kitchen scale if you want to bake, trust me) out your flour, that’s your 3. Weigh out your COLD butter cut into small pieces, that’s your 2, and (you can use a volume measure on this one, but weighing, no joke will make it exact) measure the water, that’s your 1.
So it’s 3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, and 1 part water. I like to add a pinch of salt and sugar as well, but that’s completely optional. The dough will appear much wetter than you probably think it should for pie crust, that’s ok.
What happens is you don’t need to knead the dough as much because there’s adequate moisture, causing little gluten development, resulting in a flaky delicious pie, hooray!
Eighteen Sixty-One 