Recipe: Pie Crust with Butter and Coconut Oil

Pie Making Machine, US patent 2,200,347

My post about pie crust making with coconut oil promised a recipe for the crust; this post delivers it.  
The foundation of the recipe is something from Cooks Illustrated that was posted at Serious Eats.  The recipe has quantities suitable for a two-crust pie, but since you might not always want to make that much crust — I typically make half a recipe, which is enough for two 8-inch diameter free-form galettes — I converted the ingredient list into two tables with various fractions of the full recipe.  One table has metric units, the other has U.S. Imperial units. (A third table could be a hybrid for the American kitchen with a scale and standard measuring spoons, with all weights in grams and volumes in teaspoons and tablespoons.  I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.)

For more about how I approach pie baking, see my 2009 post Building a Great Galette, Piece by Piece.

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Recipe – Pie Crust with Coconut Oil and Butter

Adapted from a Cooks Illustrated recipe (available at Serious Eats) 
 
Ingredients
 

Metric

	Units	One-quarter	One-third	One-half	Full
Unbleached all-purpose flour	g	87.5	117	175	350
Table salt	mL	1.25	1.67	2.5	5
Sugar	mL	7.5	10	15	30
Unsalted butter, cold	g	42.5	57	85	170
Coconut oil, cold	g	25	33.3	50	100
Vodka	mL	15	20	30	60
Water	mL	15	20	30	60

U.S. Imperial
(note: all instances of ounces are “weight ounces”, not fluid ounces)

	Units	One-quarter	One-third	One-half	Full
Unbleached all-purpose flour	oz.	3.1	4.1	6.2	12.3
Table salt	t.	0.25	0.33	0.5	1
Sugar	T.	0.5	0.67	1	2
Unsalted butter, cold	oz.	1.5	2	3	6
Coconut oil, cold	oz.	0.9	1.2	1.8	3.5
Vodka	T.	1	1.33	2	4
Water	T.	1	1.33	2	4

Method

1. Mix the water and vodka in a thin-walled container (preferably metal for good heat transfer) and put it in the freezer to chill.
2. If using coconut oil, weigh out the specified amount, then slice it into slivers that aren't any thicker than the desired final thickness of the crust.
3. Cut the butter into 1/4" slices.
4. Put the salt, sugar and two-thirds of the flour into the bowl of a food processor.  Process for a few seconds.
5. Add butter and coconut oil to processor and process until a rough dough begins to form, perhaps in several pieces, about 15 seconds.  Scape sides of bowl.
6. Add remaining flour and pulse a few times to break up the mass of dough.
7. Put mixture into a medium or large bowl.
8. Sprinkle liquids over mixture. 
9. Fold the dry and wet ingredients together using a spatula.  Depending on your conditions, an additional quantity of water (1-2 T / 15-30 mL) might be necessary.  Don’t worry if dough doesn’t fully hold together. 
10. If making a complete recipe (for a two-crust pie), divide into two pieces.  Flatten the piece(s) into a disk, then wrap in plastic wrap, parchment paper or waxed paper.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
11. Roll and bake according to the tart or pie recipe. For best results, refrigerate the finished pie/tart/galette for about 15-30 minutes before baking (to prevent the coconut oil from separating from the dough).

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Appendix:  Comma-Delimited Data
If you want to put the recipe into a spreadsheet with minimal trouble, here are the ingredients tables in comma-delimited format. 

Ingredient,Units,One-Quarter,One-Third,One-Half,Full (for a 2-crust pie)
Unbleached all-purpose flour,g,87.5,117,175,350
Table salt,mL,1.25,1.67,2.5,5
Sugar,mL,7.5,10,15,30
Unsalted butter - cold,g,42.5,57,85,170
Coconut oil - cold,g,25,33.3,50,100
Vodka,mL,15,20,30,60
Water,mL,15,20,30,60
Ingredient,Units,One-Quarter,One-Third,One-Half,Full (for a 2-crust pie)
Unbleached all-purpose flour,oz.,3.1,4.1,6.2,12.3
Table salt,t.,0.25,0.33,0.5,1
Sugar,T.,0.5,0.33,1,2
Unsalted butter,oz.,1.5,2,3,6
Coconut oil - cold,oz.,0.9,1.2,1.8,3.5
Vodka,T.,1,1 1/3,2,4
Water,T.,1,1 1/3,2,4

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Thanks to HTML Basix for help with the tables.

 Random link from the archive:  On Being a Vegetarian Tourist in Tokyo