Flaky Pie Crust

After years of questing for a reliably flaky pie crust, I have finally settled on a formula that I love. I developed it by pulling inspiration and technique from different sources with the most notable being a brilliant discovery by J. Kenji Alt, from Cook's Illustrate;  vodka makes an excellent liquid for pie crust. Vodka adds the needed wetness to bring the dough together, but is only 60% water so it doesn't increase the toughness of the dough. On the flakiness front, the biggest revelation came a few years ago when I discovered lard. That one change took my pie crust to a whole new level. I now buy leaf lard at a farmer's market and render it to have on hand for pie crusts and it is absolutely worth the effort.  This crust is flaky and flavorful without being too short and crumbly.

Makes two 9- inch pie crusts, with a little extra for snacks.

15 oz. all-purpose flour (3 cups)
3 Tbsp. sugar
1-½ tsp. salt
6 oz. unsalted butter (12 Tbsp.), chilled or even frozen, cut into pieces
4.5 oz. lard (1/3 cup + 2 Tbsp.), frozen, cut into pieces
¼ cup vodka, well chilled
¼ cup water, well chilled

Mixing
Add flour, sugar, and salt to the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, and pulse a few times to combine.

Place the pieces of butter and lard in the work bowl with the flour and use very short pulses to work the fat into the flour. It is better to under process rather than over process. The fat should be broken into various small bits ranging from sand to pea-size.  Don't process so long that the mixture is uniform in texture. There should also be a fair amount of loose flour in the bowl that is not bound to the fat.

With the processor running, drizzle in the very cold vodka and water, then begin to pulse and stop processing just before the mixture comes together in a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and press it together by hand. The dough will seem a bit dry and crumbly, but once it rests in the refrigerator it will roll out like a dream. The dough should look very spotty and blotchy with bits of fat not fully incorporated. This is exactly what you want, so don't work the dough to the point that it looks uniform.

Chilling
Divide the dough into two pieces and shape each into a disk, wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour before rolling out. The dough can also be wrapped well and frozen at this point. Thaw frozen dough in the refrigerator overnight before rolling it out.

When you pull the dough out of the refrigerator to roll, place the pie dish in to chill.

Rolling
When rolling out the dough it will still look spotty and blotchy, and this is good. Roll dough to about 1/8" thick on a lightly floured work surface.  After a couple of rolls in one direction, give the dough a spin and continue to roll and rotate the dough until it is large enough to cover the pie dish. If the dough is stuck to the work surface at any point, free it by sliding a spatula or bench scraper under it, then toss another light dusting of flour down before proceeding. Once the dough is large enough, fold it in half and carefully lift it into the chilled pie dish. Trim (kitchen shears work great for this) the excess dough from the edges leaving about half an inch overhang to use for crimping a decorative rim. Work quickly! Once the edge is crimped, place the pie shell in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to relax the gluten that formed during rolling, and then place it in the freezer for 15 minutes which helps delay the release of steam from the fat until the dough has had time to develop enough structure to maintain the air pockets created by the steam from the fat.

Blind baking
Pre-heat the oven to 375°F

Dock the dough by pricking it with a fork to prevent large air bubbles from forming while baking. Line the shell with foil and fill with pie weights or about 1 ½ cups of dried beans.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until dough is beginning to set, and then remove the liner and weights. Return pie shell to the oven and bake another 9 minutes for a partially baked shell that once filled will be baked again, or for an additional 12-15 minutes for a fully golden brown shell that will not be cooked once filled.