decorvow Pie Crust Recipe (With Video)

Servings:

16

Yield:

2 - 10-inch crusts

Whether you’re prepping holiday pies or throwing together a rustic summer fruit galette, every home baker should have a reliable recipe for tender and flaky pie crust they can turn to. Martha’s pie crust recipe is as dependable as they come. It’s an all-butter dough that uses a few simple ingredients: unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, a little salt, a touch of sugar, and ice-cold water to bring it all together. It’s mixed by hand—no need to dirty the food processor. The result is a perfect pie dough with minimal cleanup.

Tips for Making Perfect Pie Crust

Work with cold ingredients: Chilled butter and ice-cold water will help keep the dough flaky. When the crust is baked, pockets of butter release steam, creating flaky layers.
Don’t overwork the dough: The butter should be the size of peas, and you can stop mixing as soon as most of the flour is incorporated into the dough.
Chill if the dough starts to feel warm: If at any point the dough starts to feel warm or sticky when rolling it out, pop it back in the refrigerator for a few minutes until it is cool to the touch.

Why Our Pie Crust Recipe Works

If anyone knows how to make a perfect pie crust, it's Martha. She's been baking pies and tarts for decades and follows a few rules to ensure success each time.

All-butter crusts reign supreme: Some recipes use vegetable shortening or lard in combination with butter, but an all-butter crust really does create the most flavorful pies with light, flaky layers. We prefer unsalted butter in this recipe—that way we can control the amount of salt that goes into the crust. You can always add more salt to a dish, but if you use salted butter, you can't remove it if the dough is too salty.
Minimal ingredients: You might notice recipes add things like vinegar or vodka to pie crust. These ingredients are meant to prevent gluten from developing as quickly. We prefer to use classic French ingredients and proper techniques to make perfect crusts.
Mix by hand: Work quickly and use the best tools in your kitchen—your hands. This way, you can get a feel for the size of the butter and sense when the dough is properly moistened.

Overall, high-quality ingredients made with love by hand will always make for the most delicious pie crust.

How to Roll Dough

Dust your work surface lightly with flour to start. If the dough is absorbing a lot of the flour, add a little more as needed. The goal is to use as little flour as possible because the more you use, the tougher the dough will become.
Roll from the center of the dough to the edges, applying even and firm pressure.
Keep the dough moving as you roll. Rotating the dough slightly each time you roll with the rolling pin will ensure the crust is as perfect of a circle as possible.
Handle the dough gently. If you need to work more slowly and notice that the dough is getting warm, simply let it rest in the refrigerator for a few minutes until it's easier to work with.

What Is Blind Baking and How to Do It

Blind baking is what separates a good pie from a great one. Blind baking means pre-cooking the pie crust before adding the filling. Crust often takes more time to properly bake than pie filling, so giving the crust a head start will prevent any soggy layers from forming on the bottom crust.

Once the crust is fitted into the pie tin, line the pastry shell with a layer of parchment paper or aluminum foil, then fill to the brim with pie weights or dried beans. Bake just until the dough begins to brown and feels dry to the touch. At this point, you can remove the parchment and pie weights and continue baking just until lightly browned all over. Once cooled, the crust is ready for filling.

Directions

Perfect Pie Crust Ingredients — Credit:
Rachel Marek

Cube butter:

Cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces, and refrigerate until needed.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Mix dry ingredients:

Place the flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and mix to combine.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Incorporate butter into dry ingredients:

Add the chilled butter. Using a pastry blender, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture; the mixture should resemble coarse meal with small pieces of butter, the size of small peas, remaining visible.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Finish mixing dough:

Drizzle 2 tablespoons ice water over the flour-butter mixture, and blend. Repeat with an additional 2 tablespoons water. At this point, you may have to add more water: When a handful of dough squeezed together just holds its shape, you've added enough; if the dough crumbles, continue incorporating water, 1 tablespoon at a time, checking the consistency after each additional tablespoon.

You may not need the entire 1/2 cup ice water, 1/4 cup may be sufficient.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Divide dough:

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Divide into two equal pieces, and place on two separate sheets of plastic wrap.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Form into disks and chill

Flatten, and form two disks of dough. Wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Prepare to roll out pie crust:

Lightly dust a clean, dry work surface with flour. Place the chilled dough in the center of the work surface, and dust the dough as well as the rolling pin with flour.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Roll to 1/8-inch thick:

Position the rolling pin on the center of the disk, and begin rolling the dough away from you. Give the disk a quarter turn, and roll again. Continue turning and rolling until you have an even 1/8-inch thickness. Turning the dough as you roll will prevent it from sticking to the work surface. A dry pastry brush is handy to remove any excess flour during and after the rolling process.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Arrange crust in pie tin:

Lightly butter the pie plate. To minimize stretching when moving the dough, roll it around the pin, lift up, and unroll over the buttered pie plate.

Credit:
Rachel Marek
Trim and fold overhang:

Using your fingers, gently pat the dough into place. Trim any excess dough with a paring knife or kitchen shears, leaving a 1-inch overhang; then fold dough under to reinforce the edge.

Credit:
Rachel Marek

Food Processor Variation

This recipe is mixed by hand, but you can use a food processor if you prefer:

Pulse in the butter for 8 to 10 seconds.
Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water through the feed tube with the machine running.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is butter or shortening best for pie crust?

We think butter is best for pie crust. It has a much better flavor and creates the flakiest layers in the crust. Shortening doesn't have much flavor, but it is a little easier to work with. Crusts made with shortening will hold their shape better when baked, especially if you're creating a decorative edge.
Why do you grease the pie plate?

Greasing the pie plate is essentially a preventative measure. While a buttery pie crust is not likely to stick to the tin, sometimes gooey fillings can seep into the crevices and cause the crust to stick. Brushing the pie plate with butter before fitting the crust creates an added barrier so you can lift out slices of pie with ease.
What is pâté brisée?

Pâte brisée is a traditional type of pie dough. It's a French word that translates as "broken pastry." To make pâté brisée, butter is incorporated into flour, sugar, and salt, then moistened with cold water. This perfect pie dough recipe is a classic pâte brisée.
Why Is vinegar used in pie crusts?

Vinegar is used in some pie crust recipes because it is believed to tenderize the crust. That idea has been disproved but some bakers continue to use it. They say they like the slight tang vinegar adds to a crust. We do not use vinegar in our pie crust recipes.