The Best Homemade Buttery Pie Crust

Buttery and Flaky, Homemade Pie Crust is the best and always preferable over a store-bought Pie Crust. It's really easy to make and stores really well, which can be used days or even months later. This is the best and the easiest Homemade Pie Crust recipe and works wonderfully for me every time.

This Pie Crust recipe can also be used to make Tart Crust or Shortbread Pastry crust, which you might use for other baking recipes.

Hey friends! The holiday season is quickly approaching which means the Baking season is approaching. What is your favorite thing about this season? Is it the beautiful Fall weather or the Excitement of the approaching Holidays or the Joy of Baking delicious desserts, - especially Pies and Cookies at this time of the year?

Well, for me, baking is Pie is nothing short of a holiday tradition in itself. I love Baking Pies and over the Years I can proudly say that I have become a master at it. Well, at least that's what my Husband and Family members say.  🙂 No, seriously, I have baked so many Pies over the years and I don't know-how, they always turn out to be just perfect. Maybe my charm works like a magic for these Pies 🙂

If you are thinking that Baking a Pie Crust at home is difficult and time-consuming, then I think I need to correct you there. Making the Pie dough is so easy. It takes just about 10 minutes to make the Pie dough.

Yeah, you will need to rest the dough for about 2 hours, before you use it. But other than that, there is just no effort needed to make a homemade Buttery Pie Crust.

If you can already make a perfect Pie crust at home, you can be proud of yourself and say that you're an accomplished baked. Because making pie dough is nothing short of a success!

So friends quit buying Pie crust from the stores because Today I'll be teaching you how to make the perfect Buttery, Flaky and Crusty Pie crust.

This Pie crust can be used for all your Pies. You can even use this same recipe to make Handpies or Turnover Doughs.

Ingredients required to make the Pie Crust

• 21/2 cup All-Purpose Flour - I use King Arthur's Unbleached All-Purpose Flour.
• 1 tablespoon Granulated Sugar - I know sugar is not the usual ingredient but I always use some sugar to make the dough. It makes the dough soft and makes the pie crust extra flaky, crispy and it never gets soggy.
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup or 200gm Cold Unsalted Butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening
• 1/2 Cup Ice Cold Water

Is an All-Butter Pie Crust better than a Pie Crust with Shortening?

The answer is simply no! A pie crust with shortening is always special. The shortening has a lot of fat content which accounts for perfectly crispy and crusty Pie crust. It also makes your Pie crust exceptionally tasty.

Can I make an All-Butter Pie Crust?

Of course, you can. You can learn how to make an all-butter pie crust here.

An all-butter Pie crust is fine, however, I highly recommend you use some amount of shortening. Shortening will make your work so much easier. However, the only problem which I think you might face with an All-Butter Pie crust is that, while you roll the dough, it might start to tear apart from the sides. To avoid this problem, you can add more Ice cold water to make the dough. If the dough gets too moist, dust some flour and clump it together to make a basic disc.

What is the Replacement of Shortening in an All-Butter Pie Crust?

The only alternative to shortening is more butter. So if the original recipe calls for 1 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of shortening, you replace the Shortening with 2 tablespoon more of the mentioned amount of shortening, eg: 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon Butter for 1/4 cup of Shortening.

How to make Buttery and Crunchy Pie Crust from Scratch by hand at home?

Here, I'll explain to you step by step process of how to make flaky Pie crust at home by hand. This Pie crust recipe will be perfect for Apple Pie or Blueberry Pie or even a Pumpkin Pie.

First - Take a large bowl and add the Flour and Cubed Butter to it.

Second - Combine the Butter with the Flour, using a pastry blender or in a food processor. You need to combine the butter just until you have a mealy consistency and pea-sized crumbs. See those large pieces of butter and shortening in the image above. That's exactly how you need your flour to be.

Do not overmix the Pie dough Even if you have some large chunks of butter left, let it be. This will account for flaky and crunchy pie crust. You do not want all the fat to melt.

Third - Next, add the Vegetable Shortening, Granulated Sugar, and Salt. Ideally, Sugar isn't used in the Pie crust. However, I used some. This accounts for crusty and very flaky Pie crust and also tastes really good!

Fourth - Add the Ice Coldwater and the Ice Cubes. Combine everything using a rubber or silicone spatula. Then, knead it to make a soft dough. Your dough will clump together at this point. Once your dough has formed a large clump, do not add any more water. However, If it's too dry, you can add more water,  1 tablespoon at a time, and bring it together to make a disc. You do not want a dough that is too dry. A dry dough will break apart when you try to roll it.

If your dough is too watery and moist, you can dust some flour (just about 1/2 tsp) and coat it over your Disc. The dough should not be too sticky to touch.

Take help from the video to learn how to make the perfect dough.

You do not have to over-knead the dough. Just knead until you have a disc ready.

Fifth - Tightly wrap the dough using Aluminum foil or Plastic wrap. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours before you use it. You can refrigerate it for up to 5-7 days. Also, you can freeze this pie dough for 3 months.

Before you reuse it, you might want to thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and then use it.

After 2 hours, remove the foil

Now cut the dough into two halves. See those gorgeous layers. They are the layers of butter, which will make your pie crusty and flaky 🙂

Now, dust the work surface and roll the dough. Be very patient and careful while you're rolling the dough. Roll in all directions until you have about 12cm diameter of rolled pie dough. Roll it to about 1/2 inch thickness. Rotate your dough to about a quarter turn after every few seconds. Turn and roll so that you have a perfect circular Pie dough

After you've rolled the dough, wrap it over your rolling pin and unwrap on the pie dish.

This will save you a lot of effort and also your rolled pie crust will never break or tear apart.

Grease the Pie dish with Butter and then un-roll the pie crust over the pie dish. The extras should be hanging around the pie dish.

Trim off the excess which is hanging out using a sharp knife and flute the edges of the pie with your fore-finger and thumb.

And now you can add the filling of your choice and make your favorite pie.

Why does everyone emphasize using cold ingredients for making a pie crust at home?

The prime emphasis is given on using ice-cold water, cold butter, and cold shortening in making a pie dough because of a number of reasons.

• The cold butter is never overmixed. In fact, a little speck of butter should be coming out of your pie dough. Using cold butter is recommended because that way, the butter would melt only in the oven and result in flaky layers and crusty pie with deep and intense buttery flavors.
• This is the reason why I recommend tightly wrap the pie dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours if I am making it on the same day. Refrigerating the pie dough will solidify even the little butter which might have melted when I was kneading the dough.
• The idea of using ice-cold water is to clump the dough together and that too very quickly. Ice cold water won't melt the butter for one. Secondly, The cold water combines with the flour molecules quickly and helps in making a dough even quickly.
• I also recommend using cold shortening. You do not want anything which is warm or even at room temperature. (Expect the flour, of course :)) Cold Fat accounts for Flaky Pie Crust.

Isn't this so easy? It's a breeze and making homemade pie crust is the best. Hope you make this soon.

Try my Homemade Apple Pie

I hope you liked this recipe of homemade Buttery Pie Crust. If you happen to make this recipe, then comment below and rate this recipe. Also, tag me with #recipemagik on Instagram.