Homemade Pie Crust
This homemade pie crust dough recipe yields a flaky tender crust with rich buttery flavor. This All Butter Pie Crust is the only pie crust recipe you’ll ever need.
Homemade Pie Crust
Ingredients
Baking & Spices
- 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
Refrigerated
- 1/2 lb COLD unsalted butter (2 sticks) diced into 1/4" pieces
Other
- 6 Tbsp Ice Water
Instructions
- Place flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
- Add cold diced butter and pulse the mixture until coarse crumbs form with some pea-sized pieces then stop mixing. Mixture should remain dry and powdery.
- Add 6 Tbsp of ice water and pulse just until moist clumps or small balls form. Press a piece of dough between your finger tips and if the dough sticks together, you have added enough water. If not, add more water a teaspoon at a time. Be careful not to add too much water or the dough will be sticky and difficult to roll out.
- Transfer dough to a clean surface, and gather dough together into a ball (it should not be smooth and DO NOT knead the dough). Divide dough in half and flatten to form 2 disks. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour before using.
Can I make Pie Dough in Advance?
You can prepare the crust and refrigerate up to 3 days ahead. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it out.
To freeze pie dough: wrap and seal airtight then freeze up to 3 months. Thaw completely prior to rolling.
How to Pre-bake Pie Crust (Blind bake):
Some recipes call for a pre-baked pie crust and this is how you blind bake:
1. Form your edge. The easiest methods are crimping the rim by pushing all around the edge with a fork, or forming a fluted rim (see tutorial below). Place pie crust in the freezer 30 minutes which will help the crust bake more evenly without sliding down.
2. Line the center with a 9-10″ ring of parchment paper and fill about 2/3 full with pie weights (see below). Preheat oven to 375˚F and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pie weights, prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork and place back in the oven without weights for 15 minutes or until golden.
What can I use Instead of Pie Weights?
When you pre-bake an empty crust a.k.a. “blind-bake,” the dough tends to puff up and rise. Using pie weights solves this problem. Here are some alternative to store-bought pie weights.
- Dry Raw Beans – beans should not be used for cooking following a blind bake but can be re-used to blind bake pie crust.
- Dry Raw Rice – If using rice, it becomes toasted and can be used for cooking in pilaf recipes after it is use to prebake a pie crust