Pie dough doesn’t have to be problematic – or store-bought. We have a foolproof pie dough recipe using simple ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry and we’ve included instructions for mixing by hand.

Keep all of your ingredients as cold as possible and avoid overworking the dough to ensure your crust comes out super flaky every time. Of course, if your pie doesn’t turn out how you hoped (it happens to the best of us), you can pick up one our favorites at any of our cafés. Let’s get baking!

Double-Crusted Flaky Pie Dough
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Ingredients

2 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
14 tbsp (1 ¾ sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch pieces
½ cup chilled palm or other trans-fat-free shortening, cut into pea-size pieces
½ cup ice water

Instructions
Makes enough for one 9-inch double-crusted pie

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour and salt. Add half of the butter pieces and quickly turn the mixer on and off a few times at low speed. (This is a way of gradually cutting the butter into the flour without sending the flour skyward.) Add the remaining butter and continue mixing on low speed until the mixture is coarse and crumbly, about two minutes. Add the shortening pieces to the dough. Continue mixing on low speed until it is crumbly again, about one minute. Add the ice water all at once and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, just until it is incorporated. The dough will now look almost like cookie dough, with no dry parts at the bottom of the bowl.

2. If you are making the dough by hand, follow the same procedure using a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter and shortening and a rubber spatula to mix in the water. Mix just until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

3. Dust your hands with flour and transfer the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two balls: one should be about two-thirds of the dough and the other about a third. Pat each ball of dough into a disk about 3/4-inch thick.

4. Wrap each disk tightly in plastic and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, about one hour.

5. If you aren’t using the pie dough right away, store it well-wrapped in the freezer for up to one month.

This dough works with all of the pies in Leslie Mackie’s latest cookbook, More from Macrina. It can also be adapted for tarts, galettes and mini pies.