Nut Pastry Pie Dough Recipe

Food Processor Method: In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse the nuts, flour, sugar, and salt until just combined. Add the butter and egg and pulse until the dough balls on the blades. Remove the dough and shape it into a ball. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Hand Method: Put the nuts in a medium bowl with the flour, sugar, and salt. Mix well. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles dry cookie dough. Mix in the egg to moisten the dough. Shape the dough into a ball. Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Store nut crust dough up to 3 days in the refrigerator or 2 weeks in the freezer. Forming the Crust: Remove the ball of dough from the refrigerator 5 minutes before you want to use it. Put the dough in the center of a pie plate. Using your fingertips and thumbs, evenly work the lump of dough out along the bottom and up the edges of the plate. Dough often collects at the place where the plate angles up—push at these corners to help you even out the dough to about ⅛ inch overall. The edge of this pie crust is not rolled. To crimp it, you need to evenly a mass dough near the lip of the plate and then crimp it using your fingers as instructed on page 14. Wrap and refrigerate the crust for at least 20 minutes before blind-baking. Par-baking and Blind-baking: Preheat the oven to 350°F. (Nut crusts are par-baked at a slightly lower temperature than pastry crusts since the nuts are more prone to burning.) Uncover the thoroughly chilled crust. Dock the bottom and sides with a fork. Nestle parchment paper or foil inside your crust and fill it with dried beans or pie weights. (If you're using aluminum tins, you can rest an extra one on top for this.) Par-bake the crust for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights and bake the crust for 10 minutes more, until it looks dry, blonde, and blistered. The bottom of the crust will look partially cooked and there may still be some translucency to the dough. To fully blind-bake the crust, increase the time that you bake it without the parchment and weights to 15 minutes, or until it is golden brown. Check on it from time to time during the first few minutes after returning it to the oven. If the crust starts to balloon up, you can lightly pat it down with your hand or a clean dish towel (yes it's hot, but just move quickly) and then prick the ballooning area with a fork and return it to oven. Cool the shell completely before adding the pie filling.