All Butter Flaky Pie Crust
User Reviews
5
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Prep Time
30 mins
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Cook Time
20 mins
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Total Time
50 mins
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Servings
16
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Cuisine
French
All Butter Flaky Pie Crust
Description
This recipe calls for slicing cold butter into small pieces and cutting it into a flour and salt mixture until it resembles coarse meal or small pea-sized lumps. Adding ice-cold water and vinegar binds the dough while maintaining temperature to prevent shortening butter layers. Once the dough forms a ball, it's chilled for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, to relax the gluten and solidify the fat.
The chilled dough is rolled out gently on a floured surface to a generous circle suitable for a pie pan, handling it minimally to avoid warming. Folding the dough over during transfer helps prevent tearing. Pressing into the pie pan and crimping the edges provide a neat finish. The result bakes into a flaky yet tender crust with buttery richness.
This crust works well for sweet or savory pies and can be prepared as a double or single crust. Using buttermilk instead of water and omitting vinegar offers an alternative method. Using a food processor speeds the mixing, though hand mixing is possible with slightly more water.
Ingredients
For Double-Crust Pie:
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks, sliced into small pieces, cold
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup water or Buttermilk or Milk/Vinegar Mixture, ice cold
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
For Single-Crust Pie:
- 1/2 cup butter 1 stick, sliced into small pieces, cold
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons - 1/4 cup water or Buttermilk or Milk/Vinegar Mixture, ice cold
- 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
Instructions
- Stir together flour and salt. Slice cold butter into tiny shreds (I store my butter in the freezer) and add to bowl or food processor. Pulse until coarse meal or small peas form.
- Slowly add ice cold water, 1-2 tablespoons at a time to butter-flour mixture. Add vinegar and pulse until it starts to form together.
- Press dough into a ball. Pat each ball into a disk, tightly wrap in Saran Wrap and let it chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. 2 hours is preferred.
- Unwrap the dough, turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll it out, using a rolling pin. Don't overwork the dough. The key is to work quickly to keep the dough as cold as possible. Keep the pie tin nearby so you can check the size of the circle. Roll it to at least a 13-inch diameter circle.
- Fold the dough in half and gently lift and position it over the pie pan. Unfold.
- Press the dough against the sides and bottom of a pan. Flute the edges by pressing the dough between the index finger and thumb of one hand and using the index finger of the other hand to make the scallop. You can also roll out strips of dough and make a braid to place on top of pie crust.
- If you are blind baking the crust and not filling the crust with a baked filling, poke holes using fork along sides and bottom of crust. This will help keep the crust from puffing up while it bakes.
- Use Pie Weights, Rice, or Beans to keep crust in place. If you are blind baking your crust to be filled later with a cream filling, it is important to keep it in place. Line the crust with foil or parchment paper. Fill it with pie weights, rice, or beans and press against the sides of the crust.
- You can double line the crust with parchment paper to ensure that the rice doesn't get stuck into the dough.
- After the dough has chilled, place it in a hot oven. The hot oven helps the crust keep its shape. The edges will be the first to brown. Avoid this by covering the edges with foil or pie shields, about halfway through baking. The pie shields or foil sheets are essential for making pie!
- If making a double crust, bake according to pie directions.
- If baking pie crust only, bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove parchment paper and pie weights and return to oven and cook for an additional 6-8 minutes (for a total of 16-20 minutes cooking time).
- If baking a filled pie such as pumpkin, cherry, or apple, cook according to pie directions.
Notes
- Buttermilk can be used instead of water to add flavor and tenderness, potentially omitting vinegar.
- If mixing by hand rather than food processor, add a little more liquid as needed for proper dough consistency.
- Keep the dough cold through minimal handling and chilling to ensure flakiness.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
5
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