Homemade Pie Crust
This simple and easy Homemade Pie Crust recipe is a must-have baking staple! Even beginner bakers will love how easy it is to make and work with this flaky pie crust.
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Store-bought pie crusts can be convenient, but nothing beats a flaky crust made by hand. Whether it's a sweet dessert or for a chicken pot pie, this homemade dough will be a huge hit!
Why this Recipe Works
Thanks to just 4 simple ingredients, making your own pie crust has never been easier. With flaky layers and a light and subtle sweetness, this is great for both desserts and savory homemade pies.
Best of all, you probably have the ingredients on hand already! Learn how to make this perfect pie crust recipe and never be caught without a nostalgic and comforting crust for any dish you might need.
Whether you're making a Strawberry Slab Pie or this classic Sweet Potato Pie with Marshmallow Whipped Cream, this from-scratch pie crust recipe will get the job done every time.
Ingredients Needed
- Unsalted Butter: I prefer using unsalted butter so I can choose how much salt goes into the dough.
- All Purpose Flour: Acts as the base of the dough.
- Salt: Gives your pie crust just a bit of salty flavor.
- Honey: Adds a touch of natural sweetness.
- Ice Water: Using cold water is important for ensuring a flaky and light crust.
How to Make this Homemade Pie Crust
- Step 1: Use a cheese grater to grate the frozen butter into small pieces.
- Step 2: In a food processor, combine flour and salt.
- Step 3: Add the grated butter to the flour mixture and pulse for 10 to 15 seconds until coarse crumbs form.
- Step 4: Pour in honey and 5 tablespoons of ice water to the dry ingredients and pulse to combine. Add more water if needed.
- Step 5: Sprinkle a butting board or silicon mat with flour and turn out the dough onto the lightly floured surface.
- Step 6: Gather all of the dough into one solid ball.
- Step 7: Use a bench scraper or pastry cutter to slice the ball of dough in half.
- Step 8: Flatten each smaller ball of dough into flatter discs, then cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Step 9: When it comes time to bake, let your disc of dough rest at room temperature for 15 minutes and roll it out.
- Step 10: To transfer pie crust dough into a pie dish, loosely wrap it around your rolling pin and unravel in the pie plate.
Recipe Tips
- A food processor is the fastest and most reliable way to mix ingredients for a pie crust. If it leaves your dough with spots of unmixed flour, feel free to press those in with your hands later.
- If working by hand, a pastry blender is also helpful to make the perfect crust.
- You may not need as much water as you think, so start with less and add more if needed.
- Chill the dough for at least an hour (longer is better) before using it. This will allow all of the ingredients to properly develop.
- If small cracks do appear, try to cover them up with excess dough or mold the dough back together.
Recipe FAQ's
Using cold butter and cold water is the best way to ensure a perfectly flaky pie crust. Cold ingredients will create lots of little layers in the dough, leading to a light and flaky texture.
This is likely due to one of two things when it comes to any pie dough recipe: either the dough is too dry, or you overworked it. Be sure to balance out the ratio of fat to dry ingredients, and when you're mixing the dough and eventually rolling it out, try not to work it too much as this will develop more gluten and make the dough tougher and more easily breakable.
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Homemade Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 1 cup two 8 oz sticks frozen* unsalted butter, grated
- 2½ cups 351 grams all purpose flour - plus more for shaping and rolling
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 7-9 Tablespoons Ice Water
Instructions
- Place the sticks of unsalted butter in the freezer for 30 minutes. Once chilled and frozen, grate the butter using a standing cheese grater onto a shallow bowl. Place the grated butter back into the freezer for a minimum of 15 additional minutes.
- Place the flour and salt in a 6 cup food processor and pulse a few times on high speed to combine.
- Add the frozen grated butter and process on high or pulse setting for about 10-15 seconds until mixed in. The mixture should have small pea sized pieces of butter and dry texture.
- Add the honey and 5 tablespoons of ice water *to start* and pulse until little balls form.
- Pinch some dough pieces together with your fingers, if it sticks together, you’re ready to roll together and chill.
- If it doesn’t stick together add additional ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time and pulsing in between. Be careful not to over mix or add too much water.
- When the dough starts to show large balls of crumbles in the processor, the dough is ready!
- Empty the food processor contents onto a silicone rolling mat, and gather it all into a solid ball. Quickly using your hands mold the dough into a large ball, pressing it together and turning it each time you press about 10 times. Divide the dough ball in half (approximately 11 oz each piece) and flatten into 2 large one inch high disks.
- Cover each disk tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Allow chilled dough to rest at room temperature for about 15 minutes before rolling out to use in a pie.
Notes
- I find using a food processor to mix the ingredients is best, and less time consuming- let the equipment do the work! You can use your hands to mold the pie crust discs after mixing, gently pressing any spots of flour mixture that didn’t mix in.
- Make sure to chill for a minimum of 1 hour yet allow it to relax about 15 minutes before rolling it out.. And small cracks may happen; they can easily be fixed or covered with excess crust from the edge.
- Tightly wrapped in plastic wrap will keep your pie crust 3-6 months frozen.
