Pie Crust Recipe

Overhead view of pie crust in glass pie dish.

5 from 2 votes

Try making this Pie Crust Recipe with Butter and Shortening, all-purpose flour, salt, and ice water. It creates a homemade pie crust that is simple to make, buttery, and flaky.

Prep Time24

Cook Time0

Chill Time2

Total Time2 24

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: pie crust

Servings:

Calories: 179kcal

Author: LaKita Anderson

Equipment

1 Food processor
1 Rolling Pin
1-2 Pie Plate(s)

Ingredients

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup butter, cubed
½ cup shortening
⅛ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons ice cold water

Instructions

Begin the recipe by grabbing a food processor. If you prefer to use a large mixing bowl and a pastry cutter/pastry blender, then you may use that instead. To the food processor, add 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup cold cubed butter, ½ cup shortening, and ⅛ teaspoon salt.
Process until it resembles a coarse meal. If there are still a few larger chunks left in the mixture, that is perfectly fine.
While the food processor is still going, add the cold water a tablespoon at a time until it begins to stick together and become big clumpy dough balls.
Turn off the food processor and remove the pie dough. If at this point you find the pie dough isn't fully coming together to form a single dough ball, add a small amount of additional all-purpose flour to a clean work surface and knead the dough until it forms a dough ball.
Be sure not to overwork the dough, just enough for it to stick together to form a large ball. If you need a single large pie crust, form one dough ball.
However, if you need two 9-inch pie crusts or you're making a double-crust pie, divide the dough into two equal-sized balls of dough. Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill.
Allow the dough to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, but you may leave it for up to 24 hours.
Remove the pie from the refrigerator and unwrap it from the plastic wrap. Place it on a lightly floured surface and lightly flour the rolling pin before rolling it out into a 9 to 12-inch circle. You can also place it between two pieces of parchment paper and roll it out as well.
Roll up the flattened crust loosely onto the rolling pin before picking it up to roll it out on top of the pie pan. Lightly press the sides of the crust into the bottom and sides of the pan, trim off the excess, then use your fingers to crimp the edges of the pie crust.
Place the pie crust into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up the pastry, this will also help prevent the crust from shrinking during baking.
Remove the pie crust from the refrigerator, fill it with your favorite pie filling, and bake according to the recipe instructions. If you need to blind bake (with pie weights) or prebake the pie crust before using, then at this point you can go ahead and place it into the oven to bake. Enjoy!

Notes

Try not to overwork the dough. Once it comes together stop handling it or you will end up with a chewy pie crust instead of flaky layers.
This pie crust can be doesn't contain sugar so it can be used for both sweet and savory pies. Use it for apple pie, pumpkin pie, or chicken pot pie and quiche.
The biggest tip to making the perfect homemade pie crust recipe is using cold ingredients and keeping them cold throughout the process. At any point while handling the dough you notice it becomes too warm, stop and place it in the refrigerator to allow it to chill a bit before continuing.
Don't forget to divide the dough in half if you need a top crust and a bottom crust.
Use a glass pie dish for best results. It holds heat the best and ensures the pie crust will bake evenly and lightly brown.

Nutrition