Natalie’s Pie Dough

THIS PIE DOUGH recipe comes straight from Natalie.

MAKES ENOUGH DOUGH FOR 12 HAND-SIZE PIES

1½ cups (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter
4 tablespoons cold nonhydrogenated shortening
1½ cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons chilled apple cider vinegar
12 tablespoons ice water, or more as needed

1. Cut the butter and shortening into 1-inch cubes and put them in the freezer for a few minutes while you assemble the rest of the ingredients for the pie dough.
2. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine evenly. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the cold butter and shortening into the flour mixture until they are completely incorporated; the mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.
3. Mix the cider vinegar and ice water together and slowly add the liquid to the butter and flour mixture, working it in by hand quickly, until all the dough sticks together and is tacky but not too sticky. If the dough is too dry, add more ice water, a little bit at a time.
4. Divide the dough into 2 equal balls. Without working the dough too much, form each ball into a hockey puck-shaped disk. Wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 1 hour or freeze them. Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before you plan to roll it out. If the dough is frozen, transfer it from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw 4 or 5 hours before you want to use it.

NOTE: At each stage, it is important to keep the dough cold.

LAST SEEN
On a bike and on Twitter in San Francisco, California

BIKE BASKET PIES

NATALIE GALATZER’S basket is bigger than most. Rectangular and crafted from heavy-duty wire, it holds a stack of diminutive pies, which the twenty-something insurgent baker prepares in her home kitchen and delivers on a bike route that wends from her Mission home through the streets of San Francisco and back again.

After college, Natalie worked in AmeriCorps. And then in South America. She has experimented over the past few years with a number of food strategies. She’s tried freeganism, which relies in part on Dumpster diving. And she once pondered starting a supper club business in her apartment. But then she realized, “Hey, I can bake!”

When the gods prove munificent, Natalie Galatzer relies on windfall fruit. As in the fruit that grows on trees in her Mission neighborhood. When ripe, that fruit drops to the ground for the proverbial picking. (Sad to say, sweet potatoes don’t grow on trees. Instead, Natalie gets her sweet potatoes for the pie featured here from a friendly farmer.)