Easy Homemade Pie Crust Recipe

This pie crust recipe is practically perfect in every way. It’s so good in fact, that I’ve been making it for 16 years! You can use this simple pie dough for everything from apple pie to blueberry pie. I’ve even been known to make pop tarts with it.

Table of Contents

• What Makes this Pie Crust So Good?
• Recipe Ingredients
• How to Make a Perfect Pie Crust
• Tips for Success
• Ways to Use Your Pie Crust
• Get the Recipe

If you ask me, everyone needs a good pie crust recipe. Homemade pie is one of those pleasures in life that can’t be bought and hence is all the more delightful. You’d be surprised by how easy it is to make pie from scratch too – especially if you have a foolproof pie dough. And that is exactly what this is my friends!

This pie crust comes from Dorie Greenspan’s book “Baking From My Home to Yours,” with very minor modifications. It is one that I use over, and over for all sorts of pies. Apple pie, blueberry pie, strawberry rhubarb pie – all of them use this recipe. I’ve literally been making pie dough exactly like this for 16 years. That’s saying something. If you haven’t read Dorie’s book I definitely recommend it.

What Makes this Pie Crust So Good?

So what makes this my go-to pie crust recipe? Here are the main reasons:

• Simple. This pie dough is made in the food processor, which makes it nearly impossible to mess up. Your machine will do all the mixing for you, and it is super easy to tell when the pie dough is ready to be taken out of the processor.
• Tender + Flakey. If you ever watched Good Eats with Alton Brown, you may have seen his episode about the perfect pie crust. He talked about how the ideal crust is tender while also being flakey, and just sweet enough to compliment the pie fillings. That’s this recipe.
• Easy to work with. This dough is easy to roll out and cut into shapes.
• Make it ahead. You can make it up to 3 days before you are ready to make your pie. That cuts down on prep time on baking day!

Recipe Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make this pie crust. Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for specific amounts.

• All purpose flour
• Sugar
• Kosher salt
• Unsalted butter – Very cold and cut into small pieces.
• Vegetable shortening – Also very cold and cut into small pieces. I usually store my vegetable shortening in the freezer.
• Ice water

How to Make a Perfect Pie Crust

Now that you’ve assembled your ingredients, it’s time to make your pie dough. This recipe makes enough dough for a double pie crust, so you’ll divide it in half and use one piece for the pie bottom and the other for the top of the pie.

• Combine the dry ingredients. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt until just combined.
• Add the butter and vegetable shortening pieces. Pulse until integrated into the dry ingredients. The mixture should resemble large bread crumbs.

• Add the ice water. With the lid on your food processor and the top piece that lets you add liquid open, add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing between additions, until the dough comes together in a ball.

• Chill the dough. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and divide in half. Place each half of the dough on a large piece of plastic saran wrap, then wrap it up and press it gently into a flat disc shape. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour before using.

• Roll out the dough onto a well-floured surface when you’re ready to make your pie. One half will be used for the pie crust bottom, while the other half can be used to make a decorative pie crust top.

Tips for Success

Here are a few quick tips for the best homemade pie crust:

• Use cold ingredients. I know this may seem fussy, but it makes a big difference in terms of the texture of your finished pie dough. Make sure your butter and vegetable shortening are very cold, and use ice water.
• Don’t skip the chill time. Chilling your dough hardens the butter and vegetable shortening (aka fat) in the dough, which in turn helps the crust maintain its structure while it bakes.
• Be gentle & patient. When rolling out your pie dough, don’t hulk out on it. Gently but firmly press the dough down while you’re rolling the dough out with your rolling pin, turning the dough a bit occasionally to get a rough circular shape.

Ways to Use Your Pie Crust

This is the fun part!

• Pies. Well, first and foremost you can use this recipe to make all sorts of pies. I have a strawberry rhubarb pie recipe and also plan to share my go-to blueberry pie and apple pie recipes stat.
• Pop tarts. If I have extra dough left over I usually use it to make pop tarts. Just cut the dough into long rectangles, add filling to one side, then fold the dough over and seal it with a bit of water and the tines of a fork. Add a simple egg wash and a sprinkle of sugar, then bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350F. Keep an eye on them, the timing will vary depending on how thickly you rolled out the dough. My strawberry toaster strudel filling works wonderfully for homemade strawberry pop tarts. You can even use the cream cheese icing to decorate the baked pop tarts once they are cool.
• Pie crust cookies. Another tasty way to use up extra pie dough is to roll it out, cut it into shapes with cookie cutters, then bake them into cookies. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then brush them with melted butter and top with a bit of cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes until you have golden, crispy cinnamon sugar pie crust cookies. (Again, keep an eye on them because baking time will vary according to how thin/thick you rolled out the dough.)

Enjoy friends!

My Favorite Pie Crust Recipe

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This pie crust recipe is practically perfect in every way. It’s so good in fact, that I’ve been making it for 16 years! You can use this simple pie dough for everything from apple pie to blueberry pie. 

• Author: Rustic Family Recipes
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Chill Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
• Yield: 1
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Food Processor
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 1/2 sticks (10oz) very cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cups very cold vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
• About 1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water

Instructions

Mix the dry ingredients. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt until just combined.

Add the butter and vegetable shortening pieces. Pulse until integrated into the dry ingredients. The mixture should resemble large bread crumbs.

Add ice water. With the lid on your food processor and the top piece that lets you add liquid open, add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing between additions, until the dough come together in a ball.

Chill the dough. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and divide in half. Place each half of the dough on a large piece of plastic saran wrap, then wrap it up and press it gently into a flat disc shape. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour before using.

Roll out the dough onto a well floured surface when you’re ready to make your pie. One half will be used for the pie crust bottom, while the other half can be used to make a decorative pie crust top.

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Keywords: easy pie crust recipe, homemade pie crust, how to make pie crust

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