You won’t believe how easy it is to make 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 recipe is foolproof and bakes up wonderfully. It 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 crust? 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 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 the 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 love this recipe try these out!
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
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.
Video
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.
