Cool your Fats: Cut your butter into small cubes. Place on a plate and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Sift the Dry: Sift together the flour, salt and sugar.
Add butter to flour: Add the cold butter cubes into the flour and work it into the flour mixture with your pastry blender. Work quickly so that the butter doesn’t get too soft. (If you think the butter is melting, pop bowl back into the freezer for a few minutes.) You can also use a food processor, pulsing about 8 times. Blend the butter into the flour until the butter looks like crushed crackers with small pea-sized bits of butter in there.
Add Water: At this stage, you want to add your water until the dough sticks together to form a ball. Start with 4 tbsp of water to start, then add water in 1tbsp increments. (You probably won’t use more than ½ Cup of water.)
Tip: Too much water will make the dough very tough. So, you want to add just enough water where the dough holds together into a ball. Another tip: you could use ¼ cup of water and ¼ cup of vodka instead of the ½ cup of water. ½ of the vodka will evaporate in the oven, and this technique helps ensure you don’t “over water” your dough.
Form Dough Ball: Squeeze dough together in the bowl, then plop the dough onto a floured work surface. Give it a quick roll or two, just to make sure the dough is a well pressed together.
Divide Dough, chill: divide the dough into two balls (I use a scale to make sure they are the same size by weight). Press each ball into a flattened disc, which will make rolling easier. Then wrap in plastic-wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes (up to 2 days) to let the glutens rest and the butter get cold again.
Roll Out Dough, Form Crust: Remove dough from the fridge, and unwrap onto a floured surface. (I like to take a piece of parchment paper and trace pie-pan onto the parchment paper. This gives me a guide for how wide to roll out my dough.)
Making sure to flour the parchment paper (use the side without the ink on it, or it will get onto your dough) and the top of the dough disc, roll out to about an 11-inch circle.
Place rolled out crust into your pie pan, and put back in the fridge for 30 minutes.