Easy Homemade Pie Crust
Learn how to make the perfect easy buttery pie crust using a food processor. This homemade pie crust uses shortening and butter which creates the perfect flaky base for any pie.
Servings: 2 pie crusts
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour plus extra for rolling
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- ¾ cups unsalted butter (which is a stick and a half unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/4 inch cubes)
- ½ cup of all-vegetable shortening 8 Tbsp, chilled
- 6-8 tbsp ice water
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt and sugar in a food processor; pulse it one time to mix. Add the butter pieces and pulse 4 times. Add shortening one tablespoon at a time and pulse each time you add a tablespoon.
- The mixture should resemble coarse cornmeal, with butter bits no bigger than peas. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of ice water over flour mixture one tablespoon at a time.
- Pulse once after you add each tablespoon of water. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it’s ready. If the dough doesn’t hold together, keep adding water, a teaspoon at a time, pulsing once after each addition, until the mixture just begins to clump together.
- Clean off your counter really well or use a pastry board or a nice cutting board. Flour your hands generously. Take the dough out of the food processor.
- Make sure you refrigerate for at least an hour. Reserve the second disk for your next pie in the fridge. It can stay for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
- When it is time to roll the dough out, remove from the refrigerator. If the dough is too hard to begin rolling, let it rest a few minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, using a rolling pin, apply light pressure while rolling outwards from the center of the dough. Every once in a while you may need to gently lift under the dough.
- You have a big enough piece of dough when you place the pie tin or pie dish upside down on the dough and the dough extends by at least 2 inches all around.
- When the dough has reached the right size, gently fold it in half. Lift up the dough and place it so that the folded edge is along the center line of the pie dish.
- Gently unfold and be sure to not stretch the dough to fit. Fold pastry into quarter folds and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.
- If the dough breaks up while you're laying it in the pie plate, no problem. Simply use your fingers to press it together. Make sure there are no cracks or holes in the dough.
- Once you have laid the crust into pie plate, refrigerate again for about 15-20 minutes before adding the filling. The more it's chilled, the easier it will be to crimp the crust.
Notes
- If you are only making a single crust pie, use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the lip of the dish. Tuck the overhang underneath itself along the edge of the pie dish.
- Use your fingers in a pinching motion, or the tines of a fork to crimple the edge of the pie crust.
- Fill with your choice of filling and bake according to the recipe.
- You may need to blind bake the crust, depending on the filling.
- Very important to not skip the chill times. You could prep the dough the night before and keep it wrapped in the refrigerator. Remove the dough the next day when you're ready to bake your pies.
- Wrapped tightly, you could keep the pie crust discs in the freezer for up to 2 months.