How to Make a Pie Crust from Scratch

I love pies. A good pie is all about a rich, buttery, and flaky crust! Store-brought crusts do not even come close to a homemade one. Conventional pie crusts contain lard (pig fat), dangerous trans fats, preservatives such as BHT, and even artificial food colors! :-/

People usually feel intimidated to make their own crust but it’s actually not that hard. It only requires four ingredients: butter, flour, water, and salt – you probably have all those ingredients on hand already! As far as time factor – it literally only takes five minutes to make. I don’t know about you guys but it takes me longer than that to get ready and haul myself to the store 🙂 I use smitten kitchen’s all-butter pie crust recipe for all my pies. Give it a go and make your own pie crust this holiday season – you and your loved ones will taste the difference!

Ingredients:
– 2 1/2 cups flour
– 1 tbsp organic cane sugar
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 sticks unsalted butter, cold

You will also need a pastry blender (or two forks), french rolling pin, and a pie plate. Makes enough for a double crust pie. 

Method:
1. Stick the mixing bowl in the fridge for ten minutes so it gets cold. Take a one cup measuring cup and fill it with water. Add ice to it so the water stays cold.

 2. Remove the mixing bowl from the fridge. Add the flour, sugar, salt to the bowl. Mix well with a whisk. Dice the two sticks of butter into small cubes and place in bowl.

3. My husband helped me with this step 🙂 Using your muscles, start cutting the butter into the flour mixture with the pastry cutter. You can also use two forks for this step. Move the flour around so the butter is evenly covered.
4. When the mixture looks crumbly like this, stop (butter should be the size of peas). It’s ok if the butter is still somewhat whole, this will lend to a flakier crust – trust me.

5. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the cold water over the mixture. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to gather the dough together. Keep adding water, one tablespoon at a time, until it comes together. Knead gently to form into a ball.

Divide the dough into two parts, cover it with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 2 hours.

6. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Dust your work surface with flour because the dough will be slightly sticky. Start to roll it out using your rolling pin. Add flour to the top of the dough, and turn over. Repeat until the dough is about a 12 inch circle. Gently pick it up, and lay it carefully into your pie plate. Press it against the pie plate, making sure there are no air gaps. If you’re making a single crust pie, then trim the edges and crimp it so it looks all pretty!

I was making a double crust pie so I left it as is. Hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to a make a pie crust. I hope you try it! I made a lattice crust for the top of my apple pie as pictured below.

If you are interested in how I made a lattice pie crust, or want to know the recipe for the apple pie, let me know in the comments below.

Comments

comments