Basic Buttery Pie Crust

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into small pieces
4 to 8 tablespoons ice water (I take a glass with about 5 icecubes and fill it with water) 

I put the butter into the freezer about 15-20 minutes before I make the dough. The trick is to keep the butter from melting into the flour so you need to work fast.

Put the flour, salt, and sugar into a mixing bowl and stir it with a fork to break it up and smooth it out. Cut the stick of butter into 1/4 inch slices and toss them into the flower coating each slice with flour as you do so. 

Using a pastery blender(two forks work in a pinch) cut the butter and flour untill you have pea sized pieces(takes about 3 minutes)
tablespoon by tablespoon add ice water until the dough just barely holds itself together in a crumbly way.

Using your form the dough into a rough balland remove it from the mixing bowl. place the ball onto wax paper, or a large sheet of plastic wrap then form it into a round patty about 6 inches in diameter. put another sheet on top of the patty and roll it into a roughly 11-12 inch disc then pop it on a plate and throw it into the fridge fo at least 20 minutes( you can do this up to a day or two ahead.

When ready to use peel one side of the paper or wrap and press it into a lightly buttered pie pan then pull off the top wrap. Cut off or pinch up the extra dough. If your circle wasn't perfect fill in with the bits you cut off. throw the pie crust into a preheated oven(300-350ish degrees) for about 5-7 minutes before filling. Fill and bake as you recipe instructs.