You won’t believe how easy it is to make your own homemade pie crust. While it’s easy to quickly grab a pie crust from the store’s freezer section, they are not as delicious, buttery, or flaky as this homemade pie crust recipe. Trust me, you won’t go back to store-bought once you’ve tried this recipe!
This butter pie crust recipe is foolproof and bakes up wonderfully. In this post, I will show you how to use pie weights to blind bake a pie crust which comes together quickly with a food processor and is far from intimidating. It uses kitchen staples that you likely have on hand, so you can make this whenever you’re craving pie. All you need is flour, salt, sugar, butter, and some ice water, and you’ll have a golden, flaky homemade pie crust in no time. Need some pie recipes to make with your butter crusts? Try my cherry pie recipe, apple pie recipe, or French silk pie recipe. You can also try whipping up a lemon, coconut, peanut butter, or chocolate pie filling for an amazing dessert!
What You Need to Make This Recipe

Flour — for this pie crust recipe, you will need all-purpose flour. The medium protein content is what gives you a tender, flaky crust. You’ll have a chewy crust if you use high-protein flour such as bread flour.
Salt and sugar — both salt and sugar work together to flavor the crust. Sugar adds a hint of sweetness, whereas salt enhances the overall taste of the dough.
Butter — make sure the butter is cold. Keep the butter in the fridge until ready to use. You can even cube it ahead of time and place it back in the first. Cold butter keeps the crust flaky. I use unsalted butter as it gives the pie crust a delicious buttery flavor without being overly salty.
How to Make Pie Crust

1. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine 1½ cups of flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add half of the butter.

3. Process until the mixture is very crumbly and starts to ball up, for about 30 seconds.
4. Scatter the remaining butter and the remaining 1½ cups of flour into the food processor. Pulse 2 times just to distribute.

5. Drizzle 4 tablespoons of ice water over the mixture. Pulse a few times.
6. Add additional water, a tablespoon at a time, as needed, and pulse once or twice after each addition. The mixture should easily stick together when squeezed but not feel wet or dry.

7. Transfer the mixture onto the counter and form it into a ball.
8. Cut the pie dough ball in half and press each half into a pie dish. Wrap the pie crust recipe tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Pro Tips for Making This Recipe
- Use a scale to measure your flour. This will yield the most accurate results. However, if you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour with a spoon and then spoon it into your cups before leveling it off with a knife. This method is the best way to measure flour without overpacking the measuring cup, leading to a dry and crumbly pie crust.
- Processing part of the butter with part of the flour coats some of the flour with fat, helping inhibit gluten formation when mixing the flour with water. This isn’t as necessary when making a crust by hand, but it’s nice insurance in a food processor that works that dough more.
- If you don’t have a food processor, combine all of the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Toss in the butter to coat with flour, and then cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or by rubbing the pieces between your thumbs and index fingers. Work it until all of the butter is in about pea-sized pieces, then stir your water in with a spatula or fork. Continue as directed in step 4.
- Keep everything cold! You do not want to use room temperature water or butter. Room temperature butter will yield a hard, crunchy, and greasy pie crust recipe instead of a tender and flaky crust. The ice water will help keep the butter cold.
- Do not overwork the dough, or you’ll end up with a tough crust. You should still see specks of butter in the dough.
- If your kitchen is hot, you can ice the countertops to keep the dough cold. Keeping the counters cold helps prevents the butter becomes greasy.

Frequently Asked Questions
Tightly wrap the pie dough in a couple of layers of plastic to prevent freezer burn. Then, freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw the dough overnight in the fridge when ready to roll it out into a pie crust.
When rolling out pie dough, gently roll out starting from the center and work your way out. Turn the dough as you roll to keep it even throughout. When rolling, make sure the dough is not too thick, as it won’t bake into a flakey crust. However, if the dough is too thin, you risk the dough tearing. About 1/8-inch thick is ideal.
You can cut this easy pie crust recipe in half if you only want to make one crust. However, it’s not much work to make two crusts instead of one to keep on hand in the freezer. You never know when you’re craving a pie!
If you want to use vegetable shortening in the pie crust, you can swap out the butter for an equal amount of shortening. However, it won’t be as delicious as an all-butter crust! The butter is what makes it so delicious, light, and flaky. I recommend using a combination of both butter and shortening for the best flavor and structure. You can use ¾ cup of cold unsalted butter and ½ cup of room temperature vegetable shortening instead of the 1 cup of cold unsalted butter.
If you’ve tried this recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!

Pie Crust Recipe
Video
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Plastic wrap
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (360g)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter cut into cubes (227g)
- 4 to 6 tablespoons ice water (60-90ml)
Instructions
- In the work bowl of a food processor, combine 1½ cups of flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse a few times to combine.
- Add half of the butter. Process until very crumbly and starting to ball up, about 30 seconds. Scatter in the remaining butter and the remaining 1½ cups of flour. Pulse 2 times just to distribute.
- Drizzle 4 tablespoons of ice water over the mixture. Pulse a few times. Add additional water, a tablespoon at a time, as needed, and pulse once or twice after each addition. The mixture should easily stick together when squeezed, but not feel wet or dry.
- Transfer the dough onto the counter and form it into a ball. Cut the ball in half and press each half into a dish. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. The disks can also be frozen for a few months and thawed in the fridge overnight before using.
Notes
- Use a scale to measure your flour. This will yield the most accurate results. However, if you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour with a spoon and then spoon it into your cups before leveling it off with a knife. This method is the best way to measure flour without overpacking the measuring cup, leading to a dry and crumbly pie crust.
- Processing part of the butter with part of the flour coats some of the flour with fat, helping inhibit gluten formation when mixing the flour with water. This isn’t as necessary when making a crust by hand, but it’s nice insurance in a food processor that works that dough more.
- If you don’t have a food processor, combine all of the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Toss in the butter to coat with flour, and then cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or by rubbing the pieces between your thumbs and index fingers. Work it until all of the butter is in about pea-sized pieces, then stir your water in with a spatula or fork. Continue as directed in step 4.
- Keep everything cold! You do not want to use room temperature water or butter. Room temperature butter will yield a hard, crunchy, and greasy pie crust instead of a tender and flaky crust. The ice water will help keep the butter cold.
- Do not overwork the dough, or you’ll end up with a tough crust. You should still see specks of butter in the dough.
- If your kitchen is hot, you can ice the countertops to keep the dough cold. Keeping the counters cold helps prevents the butter becomes greasy.
Maria says
I love making cinnamon bites with this recipe!! You just cut it in 1inch strips, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, roll up and bake! It tastes awwwessomme ❤️❤️
Estela vargas says
Muchas gracia por tu tiempo y tu receta .
Cory Andrews says
I love this pie crust! I Just made it and I was so happy it turned out delicious! Thank you so much.
John Kanell says
Thank you Cory!
Heidi casale says
I used this recipe for my coconut cream pie crust at Thanksgiving this year. It was such a nice soft dough to work with. I like that it asked for vodka and I think it made a difference! I also liked making it in my food processor! So easy!! I have added this to my recipe book and it will be my go-to for all pies from now on! Thank you so much for sharing these fantastic creations with us!
Siobhan says
This is a great recipe!! So easy to follow and he gives nice clear instructions. I watched the video on YouTube Aswell and he speaks so clearly and it’s almost calming. I made it this recipe twice last night for some pineapple custard pies I had to make and they taste delicious today!! Thank you for sharing your recipe along with all the great tips and tricks. Also the blind baking with the foil is such a great tip and also the tip about the foil tents around the edge, GENIUS! Love your recipes and your online content, keep up the great work.
Allison says
Hi – pastry flour or AP flour? Recipe instructions say pastry, ingredient list says AP.
jkanell says
AP flour 🙂
Sunny says
How long can you freeze the pie crust (pre-rolling out), And if you do, how long do you have to leave it out of the freezer to start rolling it out?
Michelle says
I love to hear thorough explanations!! I’ve never heard anybody say to process the butter to lentil sized bits and I can tell you pea sized bits melted down the outsides of my pan dripping onto the oven floor! (Different recipe) I have also never read to fully support the sides of the crust during the pre-bake but I have absolutely experienced the melty shrinking sides. I was about to give up on all butter crust but the flavor of all butter is divine.
What is the difference between pastry flour and all purpose flour in this recipe? Thanks!!
jkanell says
I’m so happy you like the details! Never mind about the pastry flour. It’s all-purpose all the way!