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Pie crust.
It’s deceptively simple.
Fat, salt, flour, water.
It should be easy.
HA! ha…. ha….. No.
Ya’ll, pie crust is tricky. It takes technique.
I mean, my pie crust has always been fine. But that’s all it was, just…. fine. It wasn’t that perfect flaky, light, tender, hear the angels sing kind of pie crust that I wanted.
Not anymore! I have discovered the trick to getting perfect pie crust every. single. time.
It’s buttery. It’s flaky. It’s the kind of pie crust you take to Thanksgiving dinner to prove to your mother-in-law that you can actually bake. (Not that I did that…. ahem)
Ok, I totally did that.
Anyways…. the point is that this is the pie crust to end all pie crusts. Seriously, it’s that good.
I started with my mom’s basic pie crust recipe and started tweaking it.
First, measure out the flour, salt, and sugar into a bowl. The sugar is completely optional, but I like it. Mix it together a little.
Next we’ll add the first amount of butter. The trick to this step is to make sure the butter is super cold. I use frozen butter and put it in my blender with about half a cup of the flour. Pulse for about five or ten seconds. The butter should still be in pea size chunks. If you want to make it by hand then grate it with a cheese grater and add it to the flour mixture.
Then mix it in with a pastry blender.
Don’t over mix it! Most of the butter should still be in large chunks, the same size as when you finished grating or blending it. You’re mostly trying to coat the pieces of grated butter in the flour mixture.
Once we’ve finished adding the butter, we’ll add the water. Once again, the trick is to keep everything super cold.
So, use ice water.
Start with five to six tablespoons but I’ve used up to twelve. You only want to add enough water to bring your dough together.
Handle the dough just enough to get it into a loose ball, then wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. Then go feed your gonna starve to death in the next five seconds unless you feed him right this moment four month old baby. Never mind the fact that you fed him right before you started making pies less than ten minutes ago.
Don’t have a screaming baby? Then go relax on the couch for an hour or so and enjoy yourself. Take an extra five minutes and relax for me too would you?
Once you’ve let the pie crust chill for a bit, pull it out of the fridge and roll it into a long rectangle. Don’t go too thin, between 1/4 and 1/2 inch is plenty thin enough. Then take the second measurement of butter and dot it around the on the rectangle of pie crust.
This butter should be cold from the fridge but not necessarily frozen, although you can make frozen butter work for this step. Do not use warm butter! It doesn’t turn out right.
It should look something like this.
Once you’ve dotted your butter on the pie crust we’re going to fold it into thirds over the butter. If you’ve ever made croissants or puff pastry from scratch, this is similar.
If not, it should look something like this.
Then, we’ll rotate the dough ninety degrees and repeat this step with the last measurement of butter. Then, if you have time, put the dough back in the fridge to chill again.
If you don’t have time to chill the dough, you can simply divide it in half, roll it out and put it in your pie tin. A trick to get the crust into your tin without breaking it is to gently fold the crust in half, then half again and place the folded corner in the center of your pie tin. When you unfold it, it will be perfectly centered in your tin and it is much easier to handle the dough once you’ve folded it.
This recipe makes enough crust for either the top and bottom of one pie or two bottom crusts.
But honestly, if you’re making pie crust to impress your mother-in-law, make a pie with a top and bottom crust. Then click to learn how to make an easy lattice top crust for your pie. It looks complicated and fancy but it’s actually very easy. If you’re not trying to impress your mother-in-law then do whatever your heart desires. This crust also works amazingly well for hand pies!
Flaky All Butter Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 c. Flour
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 tbsp. Sugar (optional)
- 1/2 c. Frozen Butter
- 1/2 c. Cold Refrigerated Butter
- 5-12 tbsp. Ice Water
- Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Grate frozen butter with cheese grater and mix into dry ingredients with a pastry blender. Be careful not to over mix! There should still be large pieces of butter.
- Add ice water until the dough forms into a ball. Go slow, you don’t want it too wet. Once it forms a ball, flatten into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Roll dough into a rectangle between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. Dot the dough with half the cold refrigerated butter, then fold into thirds.
- Repeat step 4 with the other half of the cold refrigerated butter. Chill for another hour if possible.
- Divide dough in half and roll out pie crust. Bake in glass pie tin at 400° for 1 hour or until browned on top and bottom. If the top or edges brown too quickly cover with aluminum foil.
Did you make it? Let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to share this recipe with your friends!
