Pie Crust

With Thanksgiving on the way, I thought I would share my favorite pie crust recipe. While I have been cooking and baking for many, many years, making great pie crust was not something I learned to do well until just a few years ago –  it wasn’t until I received a Cuisinart food processor for Christmas one year. At first, I didn’t think I would like the food processor so much – it’s hard to clean and my patience tends to run short whenever something requires extra scrubbing. BUT, the things that I can make in the food processor, like pie crust, I just can’t seem to replicate with any other tool or method. So, now I wonder how I ever managed without by beloved food processor! 🙂

To get started, place the flour, baking powder, and salt in the processor bowl. Pulse 1 or 2 times just to mix it.

pie crust 1

Slice the COLD butter into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces and add to the flour. Pulse until the mixture is like crumbs. The butter will be all incorporated into the flour and I think it kind of looks like bread crumbs (picture below).

pie crust 2

Next, fill a measuring cup with ice and add cold water to it. You’ll use this to spoon out Tablespoons of water to add to the flour/butter mixture. It’s even better if you do this ahead, before you start with the flour mixture so that you aren’t wasting any time while you get the water ready. The idea is to keep everything nice and cold, so the longer the butter sits, the warmer it gets and we want it to stay cold.

pie crust 3

Spoon 2 Tablespoons of the ice cold water into the butter/flour mixture. I kind of sprinkle it around so it isn’t all bunched up in one place. Pulse this a few times. Then, add another 2 Tablespoons and pulse until it looks like wet bread crumbs. I’m not sure how to describe it, but you want it to look like below picture. Do not over process to the point that the dough forms a ball – this is too much and the crust will be tough.

pie crust 4Take out the mixing blade and pick up the dough with your hands. You should be able to just squish it together gently to form a rough ball. Place the dough on a floured surface.

pie crust 5

Lift up the dough, move the flour around to cover the bare spot, then flip the dough. So, now you should have flour under the dough and on top.

pie crust 6

Flatten the dough a bit, then begin to roll out into a circle. Rolling dough takes a bit of practice. The idea is to use as few strokes as possible. Start in the middle and let the weight of the rolling pin push the dough out. Good quality rolling pins are heavy for this reason. I start in the middle and roll out to one side, then repeat the opposite way (rolling only once each time, each way). Then I turn the dough and roll the other direction, starting in the middle and going out, only one stroke. Then just light strokes wherever it’s needed to form the circle, always from the center to the outside of the circle. Do not make back and forth strokes – always middle to outside, then pick up the rolling pin and go back to the middle and roll in a different direction. The least amount of strokes used will make the best crust.

pie crust 7

To see if your circle is big enough for your pie plate, turn the pie plate upside down on the rolled out dough and you should have a couple inches all the way round. I use a 10 inch pie plate for this recipe and always have plenty of dough to work with. Once you have it the size you like, gently fold the dough in half.

pie crust 8

Notice that my edges are pretty rough. Do not fuss over this to make it perfect or perfectly round. The edges get tucked in anyways, so the less they are handled the flakier they will be. Gently, pick up the dough, at the fold on each side, and place in the pie plate.

pie crust 9

Unfold the dough.

pie crust 10

Gently lift the edges a bit all the way around so that the dough can naturally fall down into the bottom and sides. You don’t want to spread or push your dough around in the pie plate. Just gently lift and it will fill in to the form of the pie plate. Once you have it where you want it, lift the edge and tuck in the excess underneath. So lift, fold underneath, place back down on the rim.

pie crust 11

pie crust 12

pie crust 13

There are lots of different decorative trims for the edges but my favorite is this zig-zag-ish pattern which is super easy to do.

pie crust 14

Just place your thumb and index finger on one side and the index finger of your other hand in between and gently pull the dough in opposite directions. I guess you might call it a scalloped pattern. My mom did pie crusts this way or sometimes she would use the tines of a fork all the way around to make little lines. Either way is really easy and decorative.

pie crust 15

If you are baking the crust along with the pie, then the crust is ready to go as is.

If you need to pre-bake the crust, like for cream pies, prick the crust with a fork all over. Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a piece of aluminum foil in the pie crust and fill with dry beans or rice (this will help the crust hold it’s shape). Bake for 15 minutes.

pie crust 15

Pie Crust

Homesteading Dreams
Classic pie crust recipe - flaky and delicious.

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 10 Tbsp. cold butter 1 stick + 2 Tbsp.
  • 4 Tbsp. ice water

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of a food processor, add flour, salt, and baking powder.
  • Pulse a couple times to mix.
  • Slice butter into 1/4 inch thick slices and add to flour mixture.
  • Pulse until the mixture looks like bread crumbs.
  • Sprinkle 2 Tbsp. ice water on top of dough.
  • Pulse a few times to mix.
  • Sprinkle 2 more Tbsp. ice water on top of dough.
  • Pulse until the dough looks like wet breadcrumbs. Do not over mix - if dough forms a ball it will be tough, so don't mix to this point.
  • Pull dough out of bowl and gently squish together.
  • Place on floured surface, then flip to flour other side.
  • Roll into rough circle that is approx. 3 or more inches larger than your pie plate. (I use 10 inch pie plate)
  • Gently fold in half and lift into pie plate.
  • Turn under the edges and decorate edges as desired.

Notes

To pre-bake the crust, prick all over with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Place a piece of aluminum foil on top of crust and fill with dry beans or rice. Bake for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

3 Comments


  1. Thanks for the encouragement to try making my own pie crust. One question though, do you have any suggestions on what I do to get my crust to cook through on pumpkin pies. It seems like the bottom crust on my pumpkin pie is always soggy. Your insight would be appreciated.


    1. Hmm… I think I know what you mean. I’m not sure the crust was soggy or under-cooked on the last one I made, but the bottom was definitely a bit softer than the edge crust. I had this same problem when making pizza using the easy artisan dough – because it was moister than regular dough, the bottom wouldn’t crisp up the way I like it to. In the case of the pizza, I started with a cold oven and then turned the heat on. Because the bottom element gets really hot to bring the oven up to temperature, it browns the pizza crust nicely. I’m wondering if we could do something similar with the pie crust? It’s just a theory and maybe if we cover the edge crust so it doesn’t over-cook. I think I need to make another pie to experiment with this!! As if I needed a reason to make pie! 🙂 Cal and Car will be excited – they like pumpkin pie as much as I do. 🙂 Another option might be to pre-bake the crust, but I wonder if it would be over-cooked by the time the final pie was done. More to come…. I’m going to do some experimenting – hopefully this weekend. 🙂


      1. I made a pumpkin pie this weekend (just posted all the details) and the crust came out good using my usual baking method of 1 hour at 375 degrees, so I didn’t experiment with the idea of not pre-heating, etc. I’m not sure if the crust recipe makes a difference as I haven’t really experimented with different recipes or pre-made crusts. I would say to definitely cook the pumpkin pie for a full hour at 375. And, if you use a clear glass pie plate, take a look at the bottom crust after the hour to make sure it’s browned nicely on the bottom. If the filling looks done, but the bottom crust is not browned enough, try covering the top with foil, then cooking a little longer and maybe on a lower rack in the oven so that the bottom is a little closer to the heat. Hope this helps. 🙂

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