Recipe: Pâte brisée- Pie Crust Pastry

One of the simplest pastries, it goes well with sweet or salty recipes since it contains no sugar. (You could use it for fruit pies, quiches, meat pie, etc.) It can be frozen then thawed in the fridge a day before use (you'll need to sprinkle flour on it since it will have surely gotten damp.)
I'll focus on the detailed steps of how to make it 100% by hand but you can use a food processor as well.

Ingredients

 

 I know it's common in America to use cups and all, but when it comes to pastry making, measuring the precise weight is much, much better. These measurements should allow for enough to make a normal pie. On the pictures, I made mine by doubling the ingredients because I needed more for the cake I wanted to prepare.

Directions 

(For pictures see down below)

By hand:

1. Prepare the ingredients
2. Sieve the flour and a pinch of salt on your work surface 
3. Dig a hole in the center of your flour
4. Put the room-temperature butter sliced in cubes inside the hole you digged
5. Mix the butter and flour with the tip of your fingers and between the palm of your hands, until there's no clump of butter anymore. The flour and butter must look like sand.
6. Gather the flour in a little mound and dig a hole in the center like you did before. Pour the egg yolk in the hole you just digged and start mixing it with the flour.
7. Add the water, little by little, and mix.
8. Once all the water is poured in,  make sure the pastry is homogeneous and form a ball with it. Pres the ball of pastry on the work station with the palm of your hand until it's all well blended in.
9. Form a little ball, flatten it (size of a tea plate, about an inch of thickness), wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in the freezer one hour minimum to one night.
   

With a food processor: 

1. Sieve the flour and salt together; Pour it in your food processor.
2. Add room-temperature butter little by little while mixing at low speed until it's well blended in with the flour. The mixture must look like sand and there should be no clumps left.
3. In a big bowl, mix the egg yolk and the water together, then add it little by little in the food processor, mixing at low speed, switching it on and off. You don't want to mix it too much.
4. As soon as a ball is formed and it seems well blended in, stop.
5. Put the ball on your work station and press it witht the palm of your hands to make it very homogeneous.
6. Form a ball, flatten it a bit (size of a tea plate, about an inch of thickness), , wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in the freezer one hour minimum to one night.

Detailed directions

 Prepare the ingredients

Sieve the flour and a pinch of salt together

Pour on your work station

 Dig a hole in the center of your flour

Put the room-temperature butter sliced in cubes inside the hole you digged

Start mixing the butter and flour with the tip of your fingers

Rub the mix between the palm of your hands

Make sure there's no clumps left (like in my right hand)

The flour and butter must look like sand

Gather the flour mixed with butter in a little mound

Dig a hole in the center like you did before

Pour the egg yolk in the center

Start mixing the yolk with thte flour, do a circular gesture

Start adding a bit of the water

It'll start to form a ball, do a circular gesture and mix with the flour

Once all the water is in, mix altogether

Blend it all, make it homogeneous and form a ball

Flatten the ball, there's still clumps

Remove the clumps by pressing with the palm of your hand

What you're using is the bottom of your palm, just above the wrist

Once it's very homogeneous, form a ball again

Flatten it and make it about 2 inches thick

Wrap it and keep it in the fridge