There are countless recipes on the Internet for pie dough, and they are all remarkably similar. I used to stress over which pie dough recipe to use and worried that choosing the wrong one would ruin my pie, and then I learned about the 3-2-1 Pie Dough! This handy little trick is easy to remember and easy to scale up or down. It will free you from overthinking the what, so you can focus on the how of making dough.

Here’s how it works: 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, and 1 part liquid. The numbers reference the ratio of ingredients by weight. In case you don’t love math as much as I do, I put together a formula below. After all, baking is supposed to be fun, darn it!

ingredients

• 300 g all-purpose flour
• 200g unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
• 100 g ice water
• 15 g granulated sugar
• 5 g salt

equipment

• rolling pin
• plastic wrap

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instructions

CUTTING IN THE BUTTER:

1. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Add the cold butter cubes to the dry ingredients and toss them around to coat them thoroughly with flour.
3. Using a bowl scraper or pastry blender, begin chopping the butter into smaller pieces. Move your hand around the bowl as you work to incorporate all pieces of butter.
4. While the butter pieces are very large, you can use your hands to break and flatten them into the flour. Work quickly, however, to avoid melting the butter.
5. For flaky pie dough, stop cutting when the butter pieces are the size of peas or hazelnuts.

6. For mealy pie dough, continue cutting the butter until the pieces are very small and the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

MIXING IN THE WATER:

1. Make a well in the center of the dough, and pour in about a tablespoon of cold water.
2. With the bowl scraper or a rubber spatula, gently mix the dough until the water is incorporated.
3. Continue adding the water in small amounts, no more than a tablespoon at a time, until the dough starts to come together. To test dough readiness, pick up a small amount in your hand and squeeze. If the dough comes together in a small clump, you are done. If the dough is still very dry and crumbly, continue adding water in very small amounts.

NOTE: Flaky pie dough will absorb more water than mealy pie dough because less of the flour has been coated in butter. Use the 100 g of water as a guide. You may find you do not need to use all of it, particularly in the case of the mealy dough. If you live in a dry climate, you may find that more than 100 g of water is needed. The more you practice making pie dough, the better you will be at judging texture, consistency, and hydration.

DIVIDE, WRAP & CHILL THE DOUGH:

1. Divide the dough into two portions. You will have more than enough dough for a bottom and top crust if you divide it equally.
2. Form the dough into discs and wrap them tightly in plastic.
3. Refrigerate the dough for a minimum of 45 minutes. It is important that you allow the butter to chill long enough for it to become firm again before you attempt to roll it out.