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Easy Homemade Flaky Pie Crust Recipe

An easy recipe for a delicious, flaky crust! 
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Chilling time 1 hour

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.
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