Flaky Layers Pie Crust (all butter, no fail!)

October 23, 2020Brianna

Welcome to Friday Pie Day!! I did a poll on my instagram page for what my followers wanted in posts till Thanksgiving. It was pretty equal votes between pie, thanksgiving sides, and non thanksgiving food. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to focus on pie every Friday (but reserve the right to post about it more than just that if I want to!). Pie is my hands down, favorite part of the Thanksgiving spread. No better way to start Friday Pie Day than with a good crust! Living in Finland where Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated, we probably won’t have a big elaborate Thanksgiving again. So I’m making new pie every week so even if we don’t have 10 to choose from on Thanksgiving, we will have had lots of pie for a month straight. I have soooo many pies already on my website. Click here for all the pies.

Anyway, here is my favorite pie crust. Several of you specifically requested for me to share a pie crust recipe. I’ve never had a problem with this recipe, though I’m still trying to find more that I like because I think it’s nice to have more than one kind of crust, depending on the pie. This is an all butter crust, which I like because you can’t buy shortening here so I probably would never be able to make it if it required shortening. But I hope in my recipe I’ve given a lot of helpful hints in how to make this work the best.

If you’re intimidated by homemade pie crust, give this flaky pie crust a shot! If you’re a solid no to homemade pie crust and going to buy a store bought crust, stick around for Friday Pie Day anyway because you’re sure to find some pies you want to make for Thanksgiving or whenever you have a hankering for pie. No judgement here.

Flaky Layers Pie Crust (all butter, no fail!)

Print Recipe

The perfect pie crust base for your favorite pie filling. Lots of tips to make it no-fail and you don’t even have to cut the butter into the flour!

Prep Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
Yield: 2 pie crusts 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 2/3 cup flour (225 g)

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, cold, straight from the fridge (227 g) cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 cup cold water (115 g)

Instructions

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and toss with the flour mixture. Pinch each piece of butter between your thumb and finger and toss again. No need to cut the butter in or mix it yet. Place bowl in fridge for 10-15 minutes.

Remove bowl from fridge and add the cold water (I use water straight from inside my fridge so it’s extra cold). Stir the dough with a rubber spatula, pressing against the sides of the bowl till you form a shaggy ball. Return bowl to the fridge for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Generously flour a clean counter and place dough in center. Roll out into a roughly 10×15 inch rectangle. Fold the longer sides so they meet in the center to form a now roughly 10×7.5-inch rectangle. Fold this now in half, hamburger style, and cut, just down the middle, in half with a sharp knife or a bench scraper. Put halves back in fridge for another 15 minutes before rolling them out.

Generously flour the counter again and roll out into a roughly 14-inch circle. Your dough should be easily picked up and moved to a 9-inch pie plate. If it doesn’t you should put it back in the fridge. Gently lift and nestle the dough into the corners of the plate. Trim the dough with a knife or scissors so it has about a 1-1 1/4 inch overhang. Tuck the overhang under the dough sitting on top of the edge of the pie plate and crimp with a fork or shape in desired way. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to about 3 days before baking.

If your pie needs a crust on top, roll the second piece out the same as the bottom piece but place on a parchment lined sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hour or up to about 3 days. Remove from fridge and top your pie when your pie recipe instructs you to put the second pie crust on your pie.

Blind Baking-

If your recipe for pie instructs you to blind bake, use a fork to pierce the dough several times along the bottom and the sides of the crust. Line the pie closely so it conforms with the pie shell with foil and fill with dry beans or dry rice or pie weights and bake at 350 for 60-75 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and the rice, beans, or pie weights. Return to oven for a few minutes longer if the bottom isn’t brown yet.