I always make two pie crusts, you can freeze the second one for later
2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups flour
1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
2-3 cups of ice water
2-3 cups of ice cubes
Chop butter into 1/4" cubes and place in freezer for a couple of hours, at least. Should be firm, but not rock solid. Too much trouble to blend if it's too hard.
Mix dry ingredients and place them in the freezer as well. It helps to keep everything nice and cold.
Place chopped butter in to bowl of dry ingredients and begin mixing the butter into the flour and break-up any clusters of butter pieces that have become stuck together. Using a hand-held pastry cutter, cut and blend flour mixture and butter, consistently, keeping in mind that everything must remain cold. The blending is complete when the mixture begins to resemble Grated Parmesan Cheese with a few 1/8" - 1/4" balls of butter.
Fill a small bowl with the ice cubes and enough cold water so that the ice cubes float.
Use a tablespoon to sprinkle water drops over the flour mixture. Mix with a giant two prong fork which breaks-up the clumps of dough that tend to form. Continue to add iced water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing with the fork in between. Do this until the dough just begins to stick together, but not quite. The few particles of dry flour will become moistened later. Form half the mixture into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. With the palm of your hand, press down the ball only once, to form a disk. Place in refrigerator for no less that 1 1/2 hours. It is important to allow the dough to chill and rest, thus allowing the flour to absorb the moisture and fat, without activating the glutens in the flour. Activating the glutens with any kind of kneading will cause the crust to become hard, rather than light and crispy.-
Roll-out the dough for the appropriate size pan. Pre-bake if necessary.
