Easy Buttermilk Pie Crust

This recipe is April Bloomfield's from her book "A Girl and Her Greens".  It's one of the easiest doughs I have ever worked with.  This dough roles out with ease and freezes beautifully.  It can be used for both savory and sweet applications.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces just before using

1/2 cup cold, well-shaken buttermilk

1 tablespoon cold water, or more if necessary

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir very well.  Add the butter to the flour mixture and toss to coat with flour.  Then work swiftly (the last thing you want is for the butter to melt) to break up and smoosh the butter lumps with your fingertips just until none are much bigger than peas.

Pour in the buttermilk and water, stir well with a fork, and then use your hands to swiftly scrunch and pack (don't knead) the mixture just unitl it comes together into a blob.  If there's lots of loose flour, gradually add more water, the scrunch and pack again.  Cut the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic wrap, and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour or up to 12 hours.  

My notes:

Par bake the crust at 375 using pie weights to weigh the bottom of the crust.  Cook for 40 mins, rotating half way though.  Remove the weights and cook for another 30 mins, rotating half way through.  With 5 mins left of cooking, scramble one egg and brush the entirety of the crust.  This will create a barrier so that your crust is less likey to get soggy.  When cooking with the filling, protect crust from overcooking with a ribbon of aluminum foil.