The main thing to remember is that you want to handle the dough as little as possible. You want to incorporate the butter into the flour/salt mixture very well, you do not want chunks of butter in your crust. Also, don’t be afraid to handle it when you are forming the ball of dough, you need to knead it a few times so that you have a nice smooth ball. When rolling it out, start from the center of the dough and roll, try not to stretch the dough. Make sure you make your circle for your pie pan large enough so that there is no need to stretch it to fit. If you stretch the dough, it will shrink during baking and the crust will cave in.
6 T. cold butter, cut into ½” pieces
½ t. salt
5-7 T. ice water
In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, & add cubed butter. With a pastry blender, incorporate butter into flour. This will take a few minutes, you want it to resemble cornmeal. One tablespoon at a time, add the water. Mix using a fork. Once the flour seems to be moist, use your hands to bring together into a ball of dough, you may need to knead about 4-5 times. You do not want to over handle the dough as this will create too much gluten and it will be tough. Wrap with saran and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.
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