This All-Butter Pie Crust Recipe Is the Only One I Use
I used to dread making pies that involved homemade pie dough. There were always so many don’ts: Don’t let the ingredients warm up, don’t add too much water, don’t overwork the dough. Honestly, it was really stressful! I often ended up with dough that was too dry and hard to roll out because I was afraid of using too much water, or I worked the butter in too much so the crust didn’t bake up tender and flaky. But four years ago, I was determined to make a foolproof flaky pie crust — since I have to make pies often for work. I was ecstatic when I succeeded.
Incorporating a few smart techniques, this recipe is the only one I use now, and even seasoned recipe developers have told me how much they love it. It makes two easy-to-roll-out pie doughs that I’ve used for lining all sorts of Thanksgiving pies and savory pies. (And if you need a deep-dish pie crust, I’ve got a recipe for that too.) The baked dough has plenty of buttery flavor, and there are lots of flaky, golden layers. I promise you’ll never need another pie crust recipe again.
Get the recipe: Flaky Pie Crust
What Makes Flaky Pie Crust So Good
This recipe was one that evolved over the years as different people worked on it and added great techniques, including former Kitchn editors Emma Christensen and Meghan Splawn. Emma chose all-butter for the best flavor and created the base recipe, and Meghan came up with the brilliant idea of adding in the cold butter in two stages. This meant that half of the butter could be broken down into the flour to start holding it together, then the remaining butter would get processed afterward to make sure it stayed in bigger pieces — which would release steam in the oven, leading to flaky layers.
My contribution was to not be afraid of using a bit more ice water. Yes, you read that right! Dry doughs don’t hold together well, which means that they can easily get overworked during the rolling process. Because you’re just trying to keep it from falling apart, you try to smash it together, or you end up sprinkling it with water and kneading it again, overdeveloping the gluten and making it tough. Dry dough is also hard to transfer into the pie dish and crimp. Adding just a tad more water means that the dough hydrates quickly and evenly, and rolling it out is much, much easier. Rolling is also faster — a few quick rolls and the dough is ready to use — which means that the dough (and butter in it) stays cold.
How to Make Flaky Pie Crust
Mix the dry ingredients. Pulse all-purpose flour, salt, and sugar if you’re making a sweet crust together in a food processor.
Pulse in half of the butter. Scatter half of the butter cubes over the flour mixture and pulse until the butter is cut up into pieces no larger than a pea.
Add ice water and the remaining butter. Drizzle in ice water and scatter the remaining butter cubes into the food processor. Pulse until very small lumps form, and it holds together when squeezed.
Form the dough into discs and chill. Dump the mixture out onto a work surface and gather the lumps together and form into 2 portions. Shape each into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling out.
If You’re Making Flaky Pie Crust, a Few Tips
Cold is key. Start with cold butter and ice water.
Don’t over process the dough. After the water and all the butter go into the food processor, don’t process it until the dough forms a ball — just get it to the point where it forms small lumps. After you take it out of the food processor, you can press it together into a cohesive dough easily.
No food processor necessary. You can make this by hand by using a pastry cutter or two small knives to cut the butter into the flour if you don’t have a food processor.
Don’t be tempted to halve the recipe. Even if you don’t need two crusts, make the full recipe and freeze one of the dough discs for another time. You’ll be happy to have it when the next craving for pie or a savory quiche hits.
Get the recipe: Flaky Pie Crust
Further Reading
Do Water Filters Really Work — And Which Ones Are the Best?
Reese’s Just Launched a Limited-Edition Peanut Butter Cup, and It Tastes 4x Better than the Original
Ball Just Dropped the Most Beautiful Mason Jars for Its 140th Anniversary ("So Iconic!")
