I like a super flaky pie crust which I believe you can only get by using shortening in your pie crust. But I also love the rich taste of butter in a crust. So for me the secret of a perfect pie crust is to use mostly shortening, but also use some butter. You get the flakiness from the shortening and the great taste from the butter.
When I was younger I use to be afraid to make pie crust. The few times I tried they looked terrible. The crust fell apart when I was trying to move it from the counter to the pie plate, or if I managed to get it in the pie plate in one piece it shrank when I baked it. I was usually disappointed with the flavor and they weren’t as flaky as I liked.
Then one day I saw Martha make a pie crust on her show and it was a light bulb moment for me. She rolled the dough out between sheets of plastic wrap so it was easy to transfer to a pie plate.
I also learned the importance of keeping all the ingredients really cold. High heat explodes solid fat particles. The explosions create steam which lightens and crisps the pastry. At lower oven temperatures, the fat just softens and melts—no explosion, no steam, no flaky crust. I love the precision and science of baking and now pie dough makes sense.
Since starting my blog, I have had several requests for my pie crust recipe. The recipe was on the blog, but it was sort of buried with my Strawberry Pie recipe. So I decided to give it its own post and take step by step pictures to help make it easier for those who struggle to make a great pie crust.
Cut the butter and shortening in to small pieces so that it incorporates in to the flour more easily. You want to keep the fat as cold as possible, so cutting it in to small pieces helps you work quickly.
Cut the butter in to the flour using a pastry cutter until you have little pea sized chunks. You can use a food processor to cut in the butter, but I haven’t had very good luck doing that. I usually over process the butter in the food processor.
Stir in the water one tablespoon at a time with a fork. The mixture will still be pretty dry.
Use your hands to gather the dough together. You don’t want to handle it too much because your hands will heat up the dough.
Dump the dough in the center of a sheet of plastic wrap.
Use the plastic wrap to knead the dough together just a little bit. So it forms a round, flat disc.
Wrap the plastic wrap around the dough and chill for at least 30 minutes.
After chilling, remove the dough from the plastic wrap and place it between two (I usually use four – two on top and two on the bottom) sheets of plastic wrap.
Roll the pie crust out in a circle. If the plastic wrap gets tucked under the dough just straighten it. When I had a Formica counter top the dough would slide around on the counter, so I used a Silpat underneath so it didn’t slide.
Roll the crust out large enough so that you have plenty of crust for the sides. I like to put the dish in the middle to measure it.
Peel off the top sheet of plastic and pick up the bottom sheet of plastic/dough and flip it over into your pie plate.
Don’t stretch the dough when fitting it in the pie plate or it will shrink back as it bakes. After you’ve fit the crust in the pan, press it gently against the sides and bottom to ensure that no air is trapped between the dough and the pan. Peel the bottom sheet of plastic off after your dough is fitted into the pie plate.
Finish the edges. This time I used a pretty quiche pan, so I just trimmed it even with the top. Martha has a fun gallery of great decorative pie crust ideas to finish your edges.
Prick the crust. Chill the pie crust for at least another 30 minutes before baking or filling with your favorite pie filling. I used this crust for a delicious quiche that I’ll post on Monday.
While this isn’t the perfect recipe or technique for everyone, it’s my favorite and works for me. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 c. flour
- 1 t. salt
- 1/4 c. unsalted butter, chilled
- 2/3 c. shortening, chilled (I use butter-flavored shortening)
- 5 to 7 T. ice water
Directions
- Combined flour and salt in a bowl. Cut butter and shortening into small cubes. Cut butter and shortening into flour until it resembles very coarse meal. Gradually add water 1 Tablespoon at a time mixing with a fork. Divide in half, form into two round disks, and wrap in plastic. Chill for 30 minutes. Bake unfilled pie crust 15 – 20 min. at 450º.
Notes
Here are my tips for perfect pies:
-Fat and water should be ice cold before mixing. If you are making the dough in a food processor you can even freeze the fat before using it. (I rarely use a food processor because I think it processes the fat to small.)
-Measure flour carefully; never scoop the flour with the measuring cup. Add ice water gradually, mix quickly with a fork and try to gather the dough into a disk. If it crumbles and won’t hold together, add more water, a little at a time.
-Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out. It will be easier to handle, less likely to shrink and bake up flakier.
-Roll the dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap. (I usually use two on the bottom and two on top – straighten the plastic when necessary.) Roll the dough from the center out using even firm rolls. Turn the dough as you work, about an eighth of a turn for each roll will help to keep it round. (Putting the bottom plastic wrap on a Silpat helps keep it from moving while you're rolling it out.)
-Peel off the top sheet of plastic and pick up the bottom sheet of plastic/dough and flip it over into your pie plate. Peel the bottom sheet of plastic off after you dough is fitted into the pie plate.
-Don’t stretch the dough when fitting it in the pie plate or it will shrink back as it bakes. Press it gently against the sides and bottom to insure that no air is trapped between the dough and the pan to form blisters.
-Once the dough has been rolled out and transferred to the pie plate let it chill in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes before filling or baking. (You can chill it after rolling it out if it's getting too soft. )
-Use a hot oven. High heat explodes solid fat particles (you chill dough to harden the fat). The explosions create steam which lightens and crisps the pastry. At lower oven temperatures, the fat just softens and melts—no explosion, no steam.
-Brush the bottom and sides of the unbaked pie crust with lightly beaten egg white. This will help to brown the crust. -For a browned bottom crust use dark metal or heatproof glass pans. Shiny pans deflect heat away from the pie so the crust doesn’t brown and crisp well. If using shiny or thin pans, place on a cookie sheet. -When baking a double crust pie, be sure that the top crust has holes cut or poked in it so that steam can escape when baking. -Crust repairs. It’s no big deal and patching is easy. Roll a scrap of dough a little larger than the damaged area. Trim the edges, dampen them lightly with water, and place the patch, damp-side-down, over the break. Seal by pressing the edges of the patch gently with your fingers.
Other perfect pie crust recipes:
Cooks Illustrated Foolproof Pie Dough, Smitten Kitchen
The Best Pie Crust Ever, City Home, Country Home
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Thanks for the tutorial- pie crust is intimidating to me. I’m going to try the plastic wrap tip.
I agree, a pie crust has to be flaky and crunchy. Yours looks great. Thanks for the tips. I never knew that about the fat particles.
Look amazing and perfect I love the crust! gloria
Great tutorial! I used to be afraid of pie crust too, but now it is one of my favorite things to make. I agree that the best crust is achieved with shortening and butter.
Over the past few years I’ve gotten pretty adept at my crusts and thankfully no longer have to do the roll between plastic thing. The thing I have discovered is that you need the perfect abundance of bench flour, and flour on the pin. Flour the pin more than the top of the pastry. Just grab a small handful and rub it on. Flouring your pin enough allows you to avoid sticking. The semi generous amount of bench flour allows you to properly rotate the dough in quarter turns on the bench to get even rolling and an even pastry. The rotation allows the pastry to help “ride” on the bench flour and not get stuck in one place. I’m sure all of us had had to peel pastry off the counter at one time or another.
Another tip to keep your dough cool – when first get your dough out of the fridge and unwrap the dough circle. try pounding gently right across the circle with the pin at first instead of actually rolling. Pound across the dough circle evenly, rotate, do a little more gentle pounding. Do maybe 4 rotate and pound. This will give a nice start to your circular shape. The less actual “rolling” you do, the less friction on the dough and less chance of your fat getting warm.
I’ve often been asked about the ice water amount – which is it, 5 Tbsp or 7 Tbsp? Well, you never know, as flour will hydrate differently on different days according to the weather. My general method is “enough water so no more flour dust of fine flour crumbs” on the bottom of the bowl. For me, it’s better to have just a touch more than too little. The extra moisture will even itself out with the help of generous bench flour.
Resting is also important. After putting the pastry into the pan and hanging it over the edges, I let things sit for 10 minutes or so before trimming and crimping. That is if my room is not too warm. This will allow the gluten to relax. Just some extra insurance to help against shrinkage.
Trust me – I’ve been through it all with silicon mats, plastic wrap, waxed paper, plastic bags — you name it. For me the key is getting to know the feel of proper hydration and using enough flour. I can roll dough on just about any surface except concrete now.
I wish you all great success with your pies. It’s apple season
Hi Libby – thanks for sharing your tips. I agree pie making is an art and the more you do it the better you’ll get.
I saw this post and have three words for you:
CHICKEN POT PIE.
http://barbarabakes.com/2008/10/pumpkin-pot-pie/
Thanks Jenn! We do love that chicken pot pie. I posted the Chicken Pot Pie recipe in my first year of blogging and now I would never title a Chicken Pot Pie recipe Pumpkin Pot Pie, even if it’s shaped like a pumpkin. lol
love this tutorial!
This is a fantastic post! Love the butter-shortening ratio!
Just fyi, freezing the butter or shortening and then grating it on a cheese grater works GREAT! Once I tried it, I’ve never gone back. I keep a couple of sticks of each in my freezer all the time for pie crust. Happy pie making!
Hi Kimberly – thanks for tip. Sounds like you’re really organized!
Grating butter is a GREAT tip! Not only for pie crusts, but for making flaky layered biscuits…
A wonderful tutorial. I haven’t tried baking a pie crust using both butter and shortening so I’m going to give your recipe a go.
How do you keep your cream pie crusts from getting soggy?
I’ve brushed with egg white , cream, dusted with sugar before baking. Still my crusts turn soggy after a few hours.
Thanks
Hi Judith – Thanks for the question. I’ve seen others add a little chocolate layer to keep the crust from getting soggy. I’ve had pretty good luck with this recipe not getting soggy with cream pies. Just be sure and keep the dough cold, cook it hot and long enough to get crispy. Then make sure that your cream filling is not too liquidy (is that a word?) If you have a filling that you love but it sogs out the crust perhaps you can change the recipe. Either add a little gelatin or whip the cream more stiffly perhaps? My Entremet post uses gelatin to thicken the layers http://barbarabakes.com/2011/01/strawberry-cheesecake-entremet/.
Your pie crust looks amazing and so flaky! That is something I am great at making… A good tutorial.
Cheers,
Rosa
Kudos! That is one of the best pie tutorials I have seen on the web! I love it and you make it sound so simple. perfectly flaky and just beautiful!
Great tutorial. I really enjoyed this one!! I will try your pie crust for my first apple pie this fall. I am not set or stuck on one particular recipe. I agree butter tastes good, but I’ve also made some pretty tasty crusts w/ all shortening and also w/ leaf lard at a pie class I went to once. I love your glass quiche dish, it is very pretty!
So, I have a confession to make about pie crust – it scares the crap out of me! I try to avoid it, but well there’s Thanksgiving and Christmas and other times when my son just looks at me and says, “Hey Mom, will you make a pie?”.
Thanks for the tutorial, it’s perfect timing with the Holiday Season bearing down on us. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl this weekend and make everyone in my family very happy!
xxoo,
RMW
This is a great tutorial as I always struggle with pie crusts ripping on me. I agree though, the shortening is the key to being nice and flakey. I’m sure a pie is in my future as we are rolling into fall so I will have to keep this post handy:-)
That’s a perfect tart crust and thanks, Barbara, for such detailed and helpful tutorial.
Love the tutorial, Barbara! You make it look so easy!
It’s not too intimidating when you see the step by step. I may just have to taste test some pie crusts! Aww shucks….
Barbara, thanks for the tutorial…and Libby’s tips are good to know too. The photos are great. I’ve been watching my mother and grandmother making pie crust all through my childhood. It is a wonder how they could do it more by feel than by a recipe. They alway used a pastry cloth to roll it out on, and a cloth covered rolling pin…both well floured!
—Barbara,
I added this to my faves. Thank you. I need it bady. x
Super tutorial, Barbara. I hate to admit it, but the crust is my favorite part of ANY pie. And a bad one will ruin it.
I love the crust too. I often try to make each bite a perfect bite by taking a forkful of the edge with each bite.
I love homemade pie crusts…it is actually one of my favorite parts of the pie. If the crust isn’t flaky…no thanks! This pie crust looks great…I will have to give it a try next time I make a homemade pie!
Great post mum! I know so many people that are scared of pastry and to be honest a few years ago I was too! But these are all great tips!
xxx
The Fear of Pastry – it is right up there with the fear of yeast baking which is why I started my own blog. Inactive for now, but hopefully a new site will go up by year’s end.
One way to possibly help get over the fear – Throw absolute Caution To The Wind and be prepared to fail. Be prepared to throw it away if it ticks you off. And if you did, then do it again, and again. Even on the same day if possible. Because it is the importance of the repetition that will help you get to KNOW YOUR DOUGH, and that’s so important. It’s sort of the way I discovered my own errors. I did 3 pies in one week where it was just the same old failure in one form or another. On the 4th one, I nailed it.
The closely spaced repetition will help you better analyze your errors. Lard works best for the practice crusts because it’s less expensive than butter, and it will “act” a little more like butter than Crisco. While the Crisco makes a good crust, I find it won’t chill quite like lard does. The lard is just a little more forgiving during the trials. My own standard recipe uses about a 2/3 lard 1/3 Crisco ratio.
Note: I don’t promote wasting of food. You can take the dough and try and re-refrigerate and start again. Problem is the dough integrity can be ruined depending on how hard you treated it. So while your recycled dough baked crust might be rock hard on the edges, it’s still edible. I’ve had success with one “recycle” of dough where the crust still came out decent. I think after that, you’re pushing it.
Hi Libby. Thanks for sharing the info. Repetition really is the key.
so useful ! thanks for this tutorial
Great tutorial! I’ve always used the shortening pie crust recipe from an old Betty Crocker cookbook, and the one time I tried all butter, it tasted good but was not flaky. I like your idea of part butter and will have to give it a try. I’ve never chilled my shortening, but it will be interesting to see if I notice a diff when I do. Making pie crust since 1970, but I’m finding I’m never too old to learn.
I was just perusing my own blog which I’m reworking and came across this youtube video which I posted. I demonstrates the “turning” on the surface which I talked about. I do it more often than she does in the video, but still the video comes pretty close to my methods. Here’s the clip
I enjoyed watching the video. I liked her tip about adding a little sugar to aid in browning. It would be fun to do a side by side comparison to see if the crust is flakier when rolled out using my method or this traditional method. Thanks for sharing.
I used this recipe a couple of weeks ago and it turned out perfect! It was one of my first times making pie crust and I absolutely loved it! I used some of it to make individual pies in jars. Thanks for the great tutorial!
Love your pie in a jar post. Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and let me know the recipe worked perfectly for you!
How do you keep the pie crust from caving in on a apple pie as it bakes. Starts out great, nice and high, then gives in. Thanks
If you partially cook the apples before you put them in the crust that should help alleviate the problem. I love this recipe http://barbarabakes.com/2009/12/apple-cranberry-streusel-pie-sweet/ adapted from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. Great question.