You can use this ONE pie crust recipe for any type of pie, whether it's a double crust, single crust, berry pie, pumpkin, or lemon meringue. This pie crust does it all! The secret is frozen, grated butter, and lard! Don't believe me? Just ask your grandma what she used for the best pie crusts. Trust me!
Depending on the pie I'm making, I might use a mealy pie dough for liquid fillings like my pumpkin pie, so the bottom crust doesn't get soggy. Sometimes I'll use my all-butter flaky pie crust for a crust that you bake ahead of time and then fill like my chocolate haupia pie, or for a double-crust pie like my apple pie.
With this pie crust, you only have to use ONE.
What's In This Blog Post
Pie Crust Ingredients
All you need for the best pie crust of your life is butter, lard, ice water, salt, and flour.
Lard - This is what everyone used for the flakiest pie crusts and biscuits back in the day until vegetable shortening came along. Some people argue that seed oils found vegetable shortening are even worse for you than the fat in lard and I might be one of them. Also, the taste, totally incomparable! Just like my donut recipe, I think lard tastes the best!
Frozen butter - Grating frozen butter into your pie crust allows you to work your butter in faster without it getting too melty. The butter adds flavor, and the moisture in the butter turns into steam, creating gorgeous layers in the pie crust without adding too much water.
Ice cold water - Helps keep everything cold. Cold pie dough is happy pie dough. The warmer your pie dough gets, the stickier it gets and the harder it is to handle. Most problems with rolling out pie crust come from it being too warm.
How To Make Pie Dough
- Grate your cold butter and place it into the freezer until you need it.
- Add your flour and salt into a medium-sized bowl.
- Add in the lard and work it into the flour with your hands, pastry cutter, knives or two forks to make a crumbly mixture.
- Add in your grated butter and toss the mixture to coat the butter evenly with the flour/lard mixture.
- Add in your ice-cold water in thirds, tossing lightly with your hands to moisten the mixture evenly until the dough begins to stick together. You may not need all the water.
- Press the dough into two disks that are about 1" thick.
- Wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for about 2 hours or up to 48 hours to allow the water to absorb into the flour.
How To Roll Out Pie Crust
- Starting with your first disk. Allow it to sit at room temp for 10-15 minutes to begin warm up but you don't want it soft.
- Dust your work surface with a little flour. Not too much.
- Begin by pressing firmly onto the top of the dough evenly with your rolling pin (see video) to begin loosening the dough and making the butter elastic.
- Once it starts to move without cracking you can start rolling.
- Begin by rolling from the center outwards. Rotate your dough periodically to keep it in a circlular shape. Keep your dough moving after every time you roll to prevent sticking.
- Once your have a 12" round circle of dough that is about ⅛" thick you are good to use your pie crust however your pie recipe instructs you to.
Brush the surface with more egg wash and some sanding sugar if desired for texture, color, and flavor before baking.
Tips For The Best Pie Crust
- Tip #1: Keep your butter COLD. When butter is cold, it doesn't blend in with the flour and when you bake the pie crust, that butter quickly melts, the liquid evaporates, creating steam, which creates flaky layers.
- Tip #2: Be mindful of your butter-to-flour ratio. ...
- Tip #3: Mix butter into flour carefully. ...
- Tip #4: Try European-style butter. ...
- Tip #5: Add water slowly. ...
- Tip #6: Use very cold water. ...
- Tip #7: Chill your dough before rolling it out.
How do you prevent the pie crust from getting too brown?
If your pie crust has not shrunk from the sides of the plate and is getting too brown, you can cover the top of the crust with some aluminum foil or you can move one of your oven racks to the top of the oven and put a sheet pan or piece of aluminum foil on the rack to prevent browning. I prefer to do it this way so that I don't accidentally damage my pie.
You can also purchase pie crust protectors that sit on top of the pie crust as it bakes to prevent browning.
So hopefully this has answered a lot of your questions on how to make the perfect pie crust. Get my recipe for mealy dough and flaky pie dough below.
For more pie recipes, check these out!
Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Haupia Pie Recipe
Apple Pie Recipe
Recipe
Equipment
- 9" glass pie plate
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7 Tablespoons unsalted butter frozen and grated
- 8 Tablespoons lard cold
- ½ cup ice cold water
Instructions
- Combine the flour, salt, and cold lard together with your hands or a fork to make a crumbly texture.
- Add in the frozen shredded butter. Toss lightly to combine and coat the butter with the flour mixture being careful not to warm the butter too much with your hands.
- Add in the water in thirds. Tossing between each addition until the mixture is moistened and begins to stick together.
- Press the dough into two equal sized disks about 1" thick.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a minium of two hours and up to two days. Or freeze and use it later!
- When you're ready to make your pie, remove it from the fridge.
- Dust the surface of your counter with a little flour.
- Press down firmly with your rolling pin to begin flattening the pie dough.
- Roll the dough out to ⅛" thick, moving the dough often and adding more flour as needed. Place into your pie dish as directed in your pie recipe. Chill your dough for 30 minutes before you bake it.
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