COLD ingredients produce the flakiest crust. Be sure to use very cold butter. In warm weather, it even helps to chill the flour ahead.
Cut the butter in until your mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
The more you incorporate the butter past that point, the less flaky your crust will be.
If you are making a double crust pie (base and lid) it helps to have a little extra dough for the bottom crust.
Divide the dough in two, making one part slightly larger than the other.
Pastry handles better when chilled than at room temperature - 30 to 40 minutes in the refrigerator before rolling is usually sufficient.
You can chill pastry in the refrigerator for longer than 40 minutes - up to two or three days if it is wrapped well.
If you do store it this long, let it sit at room temperature for 5 or 10 minutes before rolling, to allow the dough to become more pliable.
As a help, when transferring as a large piece of pastry to the pie dish, roll your pastry on a sheet of lightly floured baking paper.
Invert the pastry right over the dish or filling and peel the paper off.
