Easy Homemade Flaky Pie Crust Recipe with Tutorial
If you’ve ever wanted to make your own homemade pie crust, look no further! Making pie crust by hand gets a bad rap, but it’s really not so hard. Below is a detailed tutorial with step-by-step instructions and accompanying photos!
A note on substitutions: this easy pie crust recipe calls for butter only. If you want to make the recipe vegan, you can substitute vegetable shortening for the butter. Or if you are a first timer and want to make the dough a little easier to work with, you can substitute half the butter with vegetable shortening.
What you’ll need: a 9-inch pie pan, a pastry cutter (or fork, or food processor), a rolling pin, and a few simple ingredients! Oh, and a delicious pie filling! This is the perfect pie crust recipe for a pumpkin pie, apple pie, chocolate pudding pie, peach crumb pie, I could go on and on!
Recipe directions:
Step 1: Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Scatter the butter cubes over the dry ingredients and toss to mix.
Step 2: Using a pastry blender (or a large fork), cut the butter (and/or vegetable shortening, if using) into the flour mixture until it is crumbly with pieces the size of small peas.
Step 3: Drizzle half of the water over the mixture and toss well with the blender or a fork to dampen. Add the remaining water a little bit at a time, and continue to toss, making sure to incorporate the dry parts of the mixture at the bottom of the bowl.
Note: if your dough is still very dry at this point, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of water at a time until the pastry starts coming together.
Step 4: Using your hands, pack the pastry into a ball.
Step 5: Knead the ball once or twice, just to bring together, and then flatten into ¾-inch-thick disc. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (or overnight).
Step 6: Remove dough from refrigerator and allow to warm up a bit if it was refrigerated overnight (you won’t be able to roll it out if it’s rock hard!). Once it becomes pliable, roll out the disc on a piece of floured parchment paper.
Note: Check the size by holding the pie plate over the rolled-out pastry. Also make sure it’s approximately 1/8 inch thick.
Step 7: Invert the pastry into a pie plate.
Step 8: Turn the edges under and sculpt the edges using your thumbs and pointer fingers.
Step 9: Put the pie crust into the refrigerator while you prepare the pie filling.
Step 10: Once the filling is prepared, remove the pie crust from the refrigerator and pour the filling into the crust and bake per recipe instructions.
What is a trick to making a good pie crust?
Don’t overwork the dough. If you want a perfect crust with flaky layers, then you want to just combine the ingredients into a disc and stop there. No extra kneading! You also want to work with cold ingredients – if your butter or water is at room temperature, it will be very hard to get the crumbly dough you need for a delicious pie crust.
Does homemade pie crust need to be baked before filling?
That depends on the type of pie you’re making. Some pies require you to pre-bake or blind bake the crust (most pudding pies, for example), while others (like apple pie or pumpkin pie) are baked with the filling.
Is pie crust better with butter or Crisco?
This is a personal preference. Butter arguably has more flavor than Crisco, which is why I use it in my pie crusts. But if you’re looking for a vegan alternative, Crisco – or any other vegetable shortening – can be substituted for butter. Butter also makes for the flakiest crust. Vegetable shortening, on the other hand, can sometimes make the dough easier to work with. If you’re starting out, I would suggest using half butter and half vegetable shortening.
How thick should pie crust be?
A great pie crust will be approximately 1/8 of an inch thick.
Easy Homemade Flaky Pie Crust Recipe
Equipment
- 1 9-inch pie plate
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups 1 ½ all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- ¼ cup ice-cold water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Scatter the cold butter cubes over the dry ingredients and toss to mix.
- Using a pastry blender (or a large fork), cut the butter (and/or vegetable shortening, if using) into the flour mixture until it is crumbly with pieces the size of small peas.
- Drizzle half of the water over the mixture and toss well with the blender or a fork to dampen. From the remaining water, add one tablespoon of water at a time and continue to toss, making sure to incorporate the dry parts of the mixture at the bottom of the bowl. Note: if your dough is still very dry at this point, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of water at a time until the pastry starts coming together.
- Using your hands, pack the pastry into a ball.
- Knead the ball once or twice, just to bring together, and then flatten the ball into a ¾-inch-thick disc. Wrap the disc in a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (or overnight).
- Remove dough from refrigerator and allow to warm up a bit if it was refrigerated overnight (you won’t be able to roll it out if it’s rock hard!). Once it becomes pliable, roll out the disc on a lightly floured surface or piece of parchment paper.
- Note: You are looking to form a large circle with the disc. You can check the size of the circle by inverting your pie plate to make sure the circle of pastry is large enough to cover the pie plate with a bit of overhang.
- Invert the pastry into a pie plate and then sculpt the edges using your thumbs and pointer fingers.
- If you are not pre-baking (or blind baking) the pie crust, then put it into the refrigerator until ready to use.
- If you are pre-baking the pie crust, put it into the freezer for 10-15 minutes and then add parchment paper and pie weights (or something like dried beans). Preheat the oven to 400℉ and and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the pie weights and parchment paper and poke holes into the crust using a fork. Lower to temperature to 375℉ and bake for another 12-15 minutes or until the edges of the crust become golden brown.
