Pear and Cranberry Christmas Spice Pie: A Holiday Dessert Recipe

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment pulse flour and 1 teaspoon salt 5 or 6 times until well combined. Add butter, and continue pulsing 10 or 12 more times until the mixture is crumbly and coarse, with various-sized but obvious chunks of butter scattered throughout.

Place two ice cubes, broken up if necessary into the feed tube of the food processor. With machine running, pour up to ⅓ cup cold water through the ice filled feed tube a tablespoon at a time until dough just comes together and begins to pull cleanly away from the sides of the bowl in jagged clumps. Don’t let the machine run too long and don’t worry if you don’t use all the water. Overworked dough and/or too much water are the main culprits in…