First of all, there's Smitten Kitchen, specifically their Pie Crust 102 post. Deb does a great job breaking down the process and provides great pictures.
Reading this entry made everything click in my brain -- especially the part about not overworking the dough. The visual I have now throughout the entire process is that my dough is made up of bits of butter covered in flour. Even as I initially drop in the cubes of butter, I make each and every cube is dusted. Then, each time I cut the butter with my pastry knife, I stir things around to make sure each newly exposed surface is also coated.
When the pie cooks, the butter will melt away leaving the flour layer (i.e., flake). So, I want to keep my distinct butter bits. That means the butter can't melt and you definitely can't use a food processor -- both of which can destroy your butter/flour layers.
TANGENT: This reminds me of this cinnamon roll place when I was in college. You would see them roll out the dough and place pats of butter on top. Then they would fold it over and roll it out, followed by another application of butter pats. Fold. Roll. Repeat. Each fold would later translated into a flaky layer of goodness. Man, I wonder if that place is still around.
Secondly, there was this show on one of the cooking networks (sorry, I tried to find a copy of the show but I'm at a loss as to what show I was actually watching) where the guy was exploring southern food in New York and he visited a restaurant called Pies 'n' Thighs. (Okay, if I get to the east coast, I have to visit this place. YUM!) One thing the pie maker said caught my ear. She mentioned that their dough was very dry and that she worked to bring the dough together. That said, rather than adding extra water when bringing everything together, I add a bit more elbow grease to fold and force the dough to form without creating a sticky dough.
Well, that's it for now. As I stumble across more tips, I'll share them with you.
RE the next pie...I'm still trying to figure out what it will be but I've had a bunch of great suggestions so tomorrow will be a busy day.
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