The perfect pie crust made with both butter and crisco for the ultimate tender flaky crust.
You need the perfect flaky pie crust to go with that German Chocolate Pie or that Caramel Apple Slab Pie. This recipe is so simple and so good. You can make a few and freeze them flat or in a disc shape, then just use them up when you need them.
Pie Crust Dough Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup crisco shortening
- 5-10 tablespoons ice cold water
How to make Homemade Pie Crust:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
- Cut the cold butter into small pieces before combining.
- Work the butter and crisco into the flour with a pastry blender. Be sure to leave chunks of butter about the size of a pea. Try not to overwork the dough.
- Add the ice water a small amount at a time, stirring after each addition. The pie crust should just start to come together and should stick together when you press some in your hand. You don’t want it to be sticky, try not to add too much water.
- When the dough comes together, dump it out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Use your hand to form the dough into a uniform mound.
- Separate the dough into two each pieces. Place the other half on a different piece of plastic wrap. Press each half into a round disc and wrap well in plastic wrap.
- Chill for a minimum of 15-30 minutes or overnight.
- When ready to use roll out the pie crust dough and use as directed in your pie recipe.
Tips and Tricks for perfect Pie Crust:
- Grate frozen butter straight into the bowl to make the pie dough. You can use a regular cheese grater. The frozen butter stays cold and it helps to keep the dough tender and flaky. This method works for biscuit making too.
- Freeze rolled out pie crusts so they hold their shape in the oven. Just pop them in the freezer for 20 minutes to 1 hour while you make the fillings, then bake (without thawing) This will let the gluten in the dough relax and minimize shrinkage during baking. This is mainly for single crust pies like pumpkin or pecan, if you’re adding a top crust you don’t really have to worry as much about the crust shrinking.
Perfect Pie Crust
A perfectly flaky pie crust has both butter and crisco, this recipe is our favorite!
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup crisco shortening
- 5-10 tablespoons ice cold water
Instructions
-
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
-
Cut the cold butter into small pieces before combining.
-
Work the butter and crisco into the flour with a pastry blender. Be sure to leave chunks of butter about the size of a pea. Try not to overwork the dough.
-
Add the ice water a small amount at a time, stirring after each addition. The pie crust should just start to come together and should stick together when you press some in your hand. You don’t want it to be sticky, try not to add too much water.
-
When the dough comes together, dump it out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Use your hand to form the dough into a uniform mound.
-
Separate the dough into two each pieces. Place the other half on a different piece of plastic wrap. Press each half into a round disc and wrap well in plastic wrap.
-
Chill for a minimum of 15-30 minutes or overnight.
-
When ready to use roll out the pie crust dough and use as directed in your pie recipe.
Making This Recipe? Tag us on Instagram: @NoBiggie using the hashtag #NoBiggieRecipes, so we can see what you are making in the kitchen!
Can you freeze unbaked pie crust dough?
You can easily freeze unbaked pie crust dough. When you get the step in this recipe where you wrap the pie crust dough into two disc shapes in plastic wrap, you can then place them with the plastic wrap into a freezer safe ziplock bag. You can freeze the unbaked pie crust dough up to 3 months. When ready to use, allow it to come to room temperature before you roll it out to fit a pie plate or pie tin. Pie crust dough freezes great and when you make it ahead of time, it makes making pies fast and easy.
How to blind bake a pie crust:
To blind bake means to bake just the pie crust without any filling in it. This method is needed for cream filled and custard style pies where the filling is no bake and requires chilling (not baking) to set. When you do this, it’s important to add pie weights. Pie weights can be official pie weights or you can also use dry beans or dry rice.
Baking a pie crust without the pie weights can result in too much shrinking of the pie crust while baking. The pie weights help to keep the shape of the pie crust. There will still be shrinking of the pie crust during the baking process, just not as much with the pie weights.
Prepare the top of your unbaked pie crust. Cut a piece of parchment paper into a 9 inch circle. Place the parchment into the bottom of the unbaked pie crust and add the pie weights (dry rice or beans) over the top of the parchment.
To bake: Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and the pie weights. Using a fork, poke holes all over the bottom of the pie crust, then return the pie crust back into the oven to bake for 10-15 minutes longer until it is golden brown on the edges.
Now the real question is what will you fill it with? What’s your favorite pie to make?
