Homemade Pie Crust

Learn how to make your own buttery, flaky, perfect pie crust at home. This is a double crust recipe.

Fair warning… I feel very passionately about pie crust. Which is slightly ironic considering there are so few pie recipes on my site (I’m working on remedying that this year– see my growing collection of Pies of The Month!).

Admittedly, I have previously been slightly intimidated by pie. Not necessarily the pie crust, but the pie filling, the slicing, the keeping-the-slice-pretty… It can be a lot!

I do like to take care of all of this pie-intimidation by making my favorite apple hand pies, and of course, I always make a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but if I’m going to choose to make a dessert, I’ll typically make cookies or a cake.

I strongly believe that having a solid, easy homemade pie crust recipe in your baking arsenal is very important as a baker. I have used my favorite homemade pie crust for so much more than pies over my years of baking, even quiche and cookies.

Those cookies are made a million times better thanks to homemade pie crust. Of course, you always have the option of buying a pre-made pie crust, but nothing compares to the buttery, flakiness of a homemade pie crust done right.

And that’s what I have for you here: my favorite buttery, flaky, goes-with-anything, perfect, very easy pie crust.

Think I’m exaggerating? Read and bake on, my friend. You will agree with me in no time, I guarantee it.

For the flour, we’re just working with all-purpose. Nothing fancy there.

Salt for flavor. If you just mixed flour and fat together with nothing to jazz it up, you’d basically be eating Play-Doh. Let’s not forget some saltiness.

Next up, granulated sugar. There is much debate out there about whether or not sugar belongs in pie crust.

I firmly believe that it does, but with that, I must say there is only 1 Tablespoon in this entire recipe, which makes 2 pie crusts, so we’re talking ½ of a Tablespoon in each pie crust. Juuuuust enough to add a teeny bit of sweetness and also help with slight browning in the oven.

That’s almost nothing, but at the same time, gives my pie crust the slightest sweetness. Not too sweet though– you never want your pie crust to actually be sweet. Just a touch of sweetness is what I prefer in my homemade pie crust.

Because YES, I do use this pie crust as is for my quiches. Seriously, I promise you won’t even notice the sugar.

The liquid you’ll add to your pie crust is water, but it must be cold water. We do not want any of the fat in our pie crust to melt (yet), so in order to keep everything nice and chilled, you’ll be working with ice cold water.

The last ingredients that you’ll be working with are butter and shortening. I have tried making pie crust with purely butter and I just wouldn’t want to know what an all shortening crust would taste like.

All butter? Much too greasy for me and very hard to handle. It also tastes like straight up butter. Good, but lots of the other flavors get lost in the shuffle.

All shortening? I would imagine no flavor. And that’s just not what we want at all.

We don’t want the fats melting before they get into the oven, otherwise, the result will be greasy, crunchy, and totally unappealing. If we keep the fats cold as long as possible, they will melt in the oven, release the steam, and create pockets of air that then result in flakes.

Following? Cold, cold, cold fats!

I cut my butter up into tiny squares and freeze them on a plate for about 1-2 hours before I begin my pie crust. If they can freeze longer than that, great! For the shortening, I measure it out onto a plate and just keep it in the fridge.

SO let’s put that all together.

Start by whisking together your flour, salt, and sugar. Then, add the fats.

Using a pastry blender, cut the fats into the flour mixture until it becomes coarse and crumbly. You may use a fork or two knives to do this, but a pastry blender will save you a lot of time.

Plus, they’re relatively inexpensive. Every baker should own one.

A lot of pie crust recipes tell you to look for “pea size chunks” when cutting fat into flour, but I find that my shortening/butter combination gives me shreds and circle shapes.

Once all of your fats are incorporated, it’s time to add the ice water.

Add 1 Tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition. It may seem silly to stir after the first few Tablespoons, but you do not want your pie crust to get too wet.

Transfer your dough to a floured surface. Make sure all of the bits and excess flour make it onto the surface as well. It will be very piece-y. This is perfect.

The dough should come together easily, not crumble, and not feel overly sticky. Be careful not to overwork the dough because it will become tough once it’s baked. Yuck.

Pie crust freezes beautifully, for up to 3 months. Simply thaw a frozen pie crust dough in the fridge overnight. Fresh pie crust is ready to use as soon as it’s thoroughly chilled.

You’re probably working with a 9″ pie plate, so rolling your dough to 12″ will give you enough room to work with an edge.

Look at all those beautiful chunks of fat! This is what you want your pie crust to look like– all those chunks will make for some beautiful flakes.

Some folks like to roll the crust up around the rolling pin and then transfer it to the pie plate. I do not like this method much, and completely prefer to use a large rolling mat, then picking the whole thing up and flipping it into the pie plate. My very favorite rolling mat is from King Arthur Flour, but this is another great one that I own.

Once it’s in the pie plate, simply use your hands to press the crust into place. Don’t worry about getting this done quickly. Take your time until you get more comfortable with what this feels and looks like. And while we don’t want to melt any of the butter or shortening, it might happen while you’re figuring things out.

No sweat! Just pop the pie crust back into the fridge for at least 15 minutes after it’s fitted into the pie plate to firm up the fat again. I do this all the time.

Once your pie crust is in the pie plate, crimp or flute the edges of your pie crust and then proceed with the instructions given in your recipe.

Personally, I think that knowing how to make a pie crust from scratch can totally amp up your pie game. Remember how I said I’m not huge on pie? When it’s in this crust? I’m all about it.

And even more so, my homemade quiches + this crust are simply the best.

Tons of flavor, tons of texture, and a sturdy base for whatever filling your pie heart desires.

Even the gooey filling of my chocolate chip pecan pie!

I hope that after reading, you feel great about conquering the homemade pie crust world– you can totally do this!

And don’t worry, if you have leftover pie dough, you’ll find my pie crust cookies a helpful place to use it up!