A flaky, all butter pie crust that anyone can make. With only five simple ingredients , you can make pie crust at home and ditch the store bought stuff for good!
I grew up in a house that made everything from scratch…except for pie crust. Unfortunately, I thought store bought was normal. *gasp*
Pie crust is a baking staple that sadly intimidates so many people. I spent a lot of time researching the purpose of each ingredient and hours of recipe testing. You no longer have to fear pie crust! This recipe is so easy to recreate and much better than store bought. You truly can’t recreate the flakiness of a homemade crust!
All Butter Pie Crust Ingredient Line Up
Understanding the purpose of each ingredient will help you become a pie crust expert.
- Unsalted Butter – Your butter needs to be cold. I typically cube my butter and pop it in the freezer about 30 minutes before making my crust. The cubes will help us easily cut in the butter.
- Ice Water – This will keep your dough from cracking and becoming dry. If your dough is too dry, then you can add a bit more.
- All Purpose Flour – You want to measure your flour by spooning and leveling it into your measuring cup. If you have time, then I recommend popping your flour into the fridge or freezer and using chilled flour.
- Sugar – A bit of sugar will help brown the pie crust.
- Salt – It adds flavor to your crust.
Keepin’ it Cool
The most important thing to remember when making pie crust is to use cold ingredients. Room temperature or warm dough will result in a hard, chewy crust.
Why does temperature matter so much you might ask?
Butter has a high concentration of water which causes the flakes. When the crust bakes, the water will evaporate and create steam. That steam rises and then creates those irresistible, flakey layers! This recipe consists of flakes of cold butter all throughout the dough. Don’t be worried when you see pats of butter not fully incorporated. That’s exactly what you want!
We will also chill our dough in the fridge before baking it. That will ensure our fat is not room temperature!
Once your dough is complete, continue baking as per your recipe’s instructions. I recommend my banana cream pie if you’re looking for a cream based pie. You can store this crust tightly wrapped in the refrigerator up to five days or freeze it for up to two months. Perfect for holiday prep!
All Butter Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 cup ice water
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl.
- Using a pastry cutter or two forks, cut in the cubed butter. Cut it until there are pea sized flakes throughout.
- Mix in 1/2 cup of the ice water with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
- Add additional ice water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough begins to come together. It will be sticky, but easy to work with.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, work the dough into a ball.
- Divide the dough in half, and flatten each half into a disk.
- Tightly wrap the disks in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours.
- Gently roll out the chilled dough from the center of the disk. Rotate the dough a quarter turn after each roll to make a circular dough.
- Continue with your pie recipe or freeze the dough up to two months!
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!
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