Pate Brisee for One Galette or Pie

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 scant tsp salt
16 TB (two sticks) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1" chunks
½ cup ice water

Start with all ingredients very well chilled. Add flour, sugar, and salt to food processor and pulse once or twice to combine. Add butter and pulse quickly 6–8 times. Butter should still be fairly chunky. If you’ve reached the “coarse cornmeal” stage, you’ve gone too far.

Pulsing, add ice water fairly quickly. It shouldn’t take more than 10–15 seconds. Dough will still be fairly loose and crumbly.

Dump contents of food processor into a gallon-sized ziplock bag. Knead briefly with your hands and work into a compressed disc. Chill for at least 30 minutes prior to rolling out.

The key is to start with very well-chilled ingredients and work the dough quickly. Don’t over-handle it and if, while rolling it out, it gets too warm or loose, place it back in the fridge to chill and firm up again. You can also use your favorite pie pastry dough. Rolling dough out on cooking parchment allows you to easily lift the whole thing onto and off a baking sheet.