Feb 3, 20214 min read

Homemade Pie Crust

Updated: Jul 2, 2021

Pie crusts are notorious for being difficult to get right, but every time I have made this pie crust recipe, it comes out perfect! It's buttery, flakey, not too sweet and pretty simple. Don't be intimidated making homemade pie crusts from scratch anymore 🤍

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Pie crusts can be stressful to make, because if you just slaved over the filling of your pie, the last thing you want is a crust that falls flat in comparison. I love this crust because it is not too sweet and has just the right amount of salt to compliment fruit and dessert pies. Don't be intimidated, it really is so simple! The trick is to make sure that the dough stays super cold the whole time you are working with it.

THE SECRET TO THE PERFECT PIE CRUST

As you knead or mix the butter in, the warmth from your hands can start to soften and melt the ingredients. Simply pause and place the dough or ingredients in the freezer for 1-15 minutes. It is also key to make sure you keep the butter cold until right before you incorporate it into the dough. Only take out a little butter at a time as you are ready, not the full 2.5 sticks. I usually have to pause and put my dough back in the fridge at least one or two times while I'm making it. When it doubt, let it chill a bit. 🙃

Now that you can make the perfect pie crust, head over to this Bourbon Pecan Pie recipe and get cookin' 😏.

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Homemade Pie Crust

Yields: 1 double pie crust or 2 single pie crusts

Cook Time: 1 hour

Instructions:

Prepare a bowl of ice water (I make more and just scoop out 1/4 cup when needed)
Whisk flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl
One half stick of COLD butter at a time, chop the butter into thin slices and work into the dry ingredients. Use your fingers and thumbs to smoosh the flour and butter together into wafer thin flakes. You want varying sizes of butter flakes (that's why I like to do this by hand instead of in a food processor). The flakes of butter are what make the dough so flakey, so you want thin flakes rather than round chunks of butter.
NOTE: The warmth from your hands will start to melt the butter. That's why you want to start with very cold butter and only pull out a half stick at a time from the fridge. If you feel that the butter flakes are starting to get soft and melty, pause and pop the dough into the freezer for 10-15 minutes. The secret to this pie crust is to make sure the butter you add and the butter in the dough stays super cold the whole time.
Continue incorporating the butter into the flour until you have smooshed all the butter into the flour mixture.
Beat one egg in a small bowl until frothy. In another bowl, scoop out 2 tbs of the beaten egg (don't stress too much about this being exact) and beat together with 1/4 cup of ice water.
Add ice water and egg mixture to flour mixture and incorporate it fully with your hands. REMEMBER: If it ever starts to feel soft or melty, pause and pop it in the freezer for a bit.
Knead the dough together until it is a cohesive ball, then cut it in half and form each into a ball or disc. Wrap in a wet paper towel and chill for at least half an hour.
After the dough has chilled, turn the dough out on a generously floured surface. Let it warm up for several minutes before starting to roll. NOTE: If you are rolling out both pie doughs, do them one at a time, leaving one in the freezer while you make the first one.
Using a floured rolling pin (or bottle of wine like I do because I don't have a rolling pin 😳) roll the dough outward from the center until it is a circle with a diameter of 12-14 inches. NOTE: I like to lift the dough up and turn it over about halfway through rolling it out so that I make sure it is not sticking to the surface.
If there are any cracks at the edges, dip your finger in water and press the dough together to repair the crack.
Once it is rolled out to a nice circle, fold one edge of the dough over your rolling pin and roll the dough off the surface and transfer the dough onto a 9-inch pie plate.
Press the dough into the edges and corners of the pie plate. Make sure you have the dough all the way into the corners.
For a single pie crust, fold any overhanging dough onto itself and decorate the edge of your pie crust as you wish and return it to the refrigerator or freezer to chill. Land O'Lakes has a great blog on some Decorative Pie Crust Edges.
For a double crust pie, add filling to your base pie crust in your pie plate and place in the fridge to chill while you roll out the second pie dough as you did before. Pull the first out of the fridge,. Roll out the second crust on top and decorate as you wish. Check out these 15 Double Crust Pie Designs from Martha Stewart.
Follow your pie recipe for how to bake the crust/pie. NOTE: Before placing the top pie crust in the oven, brush it with the remaining beaten egg from earlier. This will make it a nice golden brown with a beautiful shine.