BASICS: "Easy as pie" whole wheat pie crust

I love savory tarts and galettes, and my kids love pie, so I make pie crusts on a regular basis.  I have the most perfect, easy, and yummy 100% whole wheat pie crust recipe that you must try.  With whole wheat flour and no preservatives, it's cheaper and healthier than anything you can buy in a grocery store.  My recipe is adopted from the Whole Foods recipe blog.  I've given some tips and hints to help you not make the mistakes I made when I first started baking this crust. 


1 1/4 Cups whole wheat pastry flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
7 tablespoons very cold organic butter (cut into approximately 1 tablespoon squares)
some ice water with a teaspoon

Put the butter squares in a small bowl or plate and place in the freezer (for at least 3 - 5 minutes) while you measure out the flour.

Put the flour in the bowl of your food-processor and add the very cold butter squares.  Pulse a few times.  (Alternatively, you can cut in the cold butter squares using quick strokes with a pastry blender.  Follow the rest of the recipe with the pastry blender).

Add a teaspoon of ice water at a time, pulse until a ball forms, or it appears that the dough can be held together by patting it together.   Do not use too much water.

Put the dough ball in the refrigerator for another 3 - 5 minutes.

Roll out the dough to about a 10 inch round.  Transfer to pie dish.  Gently press together any tears and crimp the edge of the pie crust with your fingers.

Using a fork, poke holes in the dough.  Partially bake for 7 minutes at 375 degrees.

Once cool, you can fill the crust with whatever ingredients you want and bake per directions of that dish.




TIPS:
* Keep everything cold.  If it appears that the butter is melting, stop what you're doing and put the dough in the refrigerator until cold.

* Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface or between wax paper.  Don't overwork the dough or it will get tough.

*If you have a difficult time transferring the rolled out dough, you can use a pizza peel.  Gently use the pizza peel to get under the dough, put the pie dish upside down in the middle of the dough and turn the whole thing over.  Remove the peel and the dough should be in the center of the pie dish.  You can also fold the dough into fourths for transfer and gently unfold in the pie dish. Or follow my best friend's example and loosely roll half the dough of the rolling pin to lift and place in the pie dish.

* Don't worry about tears in the dough.  Just press the tears together.  It's better to have tears in the dough than an overworked dough with no tears.

* You can also weigh down the crust with dry beans or pie crust weights during baking to prevent large bubbles from forming.  Just remember to layer the dough first with aluminum foil.  The dry beans can not be able to be eaten after baking.

*If you don't have whole wheat pastry flour, you can substitute whole wheat flour but the crust will not be as flaky and light.  

*  To make 2 crusts, it's easiest to just make one pie crust at a time instead of doubling the ingredients.