Note
You can knead/ prepare the dough in a food processor too. To mix in a food processor, combine both flours, salt, oregano, sugar in it & pulse once to mix. Now add in the chilled butter cubes & pulse 6 to 7 times till it resembles breadcrumbs or pea sized pieces of butter remains.
Add the ice cold water a tbsp at a time and pulse until the mixture just starts coming together. To check if done, take a small portion of this flour mixture & if they hold together, its ready.
Transfer dough onto a clean surface and knead lightly to bring it all together. Divide into balls and proceed as above.
Dough is wrapped in cling film and refrigerated for at least half hour to make the dough firmer & easier to handle. It can be refrigerated for a day or two even.In that case, before you divide into balls, keep the dough aside at room temp for about 5 to 10 mins so that they soften a bit & makes rolling out easier.
The base can be blind baked and stored in an airtight container for few hours or upto 1 day in advance. At serving time, keep the filling & bake/ serve as the recipe requires.
Always knead a tart dough gently and never apply too much pressure.
One of the secrets to getting a flaky pie crust is to use chilled butter.
Instead of wheat flour and maida, you could 250 gms plain flour too.
If making the base for a sweet filling, skip the oregano, pepper. And make the base from only 250 gms plain flour.
Some recipes call for bringing butter to room temp and then adding flour to it. So this goes to my to-do list and hopefully this method is a lot less tricky!!