Easy Homemade Pie Crust

Happy Pi day! To celebrate all things pie this March 14th, I want to get back to basics and share my easy homemade pie crust recipe. It has great flavor from butter, shortening creates a stable dough that rolls out well, and a little secret that makes an incredibly flaky crust.

Many people are intimidated by making a pie crust from scratch, but with a few simple tips, you can whip up pies, quiches, and pastry-wrapped goodies whenever you’d like. This recipe comes together in 2 minutes in a food processor. It will take more time to clean the container than to mix up the dough.

Butter and Shortening For Easy Homemade Pie Crust

Butter gives a wonderful flavor to baked goods, so it is a no brainer to use butter in pie crust. It has water that evaporates as it bakes and makes layers in the crust. The downside is the crust is soft and tends to shrink or lose its shape as it is handled. To get the best results from butter, make sure you can see bits of butter in the dough.

Shortening contains a higher fat percentage than butter. It is stable and easier for beginner pie makers to work with. (I use butter-flavored shortening to add to the taste of the dough.) It creates a tender flakey crust.

So making a crust with a combination of butter and shortening is a sensible solution for an easy homemade pie crust.

Secrets for Flaky Pie Crust

Whether you prefer all butter, lard, shortening or a combination of the three, there are a few tips that will elevate your pie crust to greatness. Your goal is to create pea-sized chunks of cold butter that will still be intact when the dough hits the heat of the oven. When the butter melts and the water in the butter evaporates it creates pockets that turn into layers which equals flaky bits.

Cold is Key for Pie Crusts

Start with cold ingredients–especially the butter. Cut it into 1/2″ squares and pop the butter chunks into the freezer while you get out the food processor and assemble the other ingredients. Having cold ingredients adds a buffer that protects against overprocessing the dough.

Add a teaspoon of sugar to every pie crust, even savory pies, sugar improves the flavor and helps the crust brown as it bakes.

Use ice water, remember cold keeps the butter from incorporating too much. So add a bunch of ice cubes to the water and remove the cubes just before using. Add only enough water to make it come together. It will look crumbly, but the flour will hydrate as the dough rests and chills.

A Secret Ingedient for Easy Homemade Pie Crust

Substitute 2 tablespoons of vodka, apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar for the water. Becuase these liquids have been distilled, they will inhibit gluten from forming which results in a more tender crust. (You won’t be able to taste it in the baked crust, but it will give you an edge in ensuring a flaky pie.)

Don’t Over-proccess the Dough

Make sure to not overprocess the dough, pea-size chunks of butter is the goal so when you go to roll it out after it has chilled, you can see butter streaks as it is formed into the pan. So every step of the process, you want to error on the side of underprocessing. You can always work a sprinkle of water into the chilled disk if it feels like the dough will crumble rather than roll out.

Don’t scrimp on the chill time. Pie dough needs to rest in the refrigerator or freezer to let the gluten in the flour relax and absorb the liquid from the dough. When you first turn the dough out it will seem too crumbly. After an hour or two in the cold, it will have a different consistency and will be easy to roll out.

Practice, practice practice. There is a learning curve to knowing how to handle the dough and when there is enough liquid to bring it together. The more experience you have making pie crusts the easier it becomes to make wonderful pies of every variety.

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