For as long as I can remember, the idea of making homemade pie crust has been scary to me. Last year, amid the chaos of making Thanksgiving dinner, I tried to make a pumpkin pie. The crust shrank and sprung a leak, resulting in a soggy bottom and half the filling stuck to the pie pan. It was so. sad. And I couldn’t help but wonder, does making pie crust at home have to be such a nightmare? Or maybe, could homemade pie crust be more like a dream come true?

Thanks to some research, some practice, and a year of following @mariesaba on Instagram, I have a recipe that I can count on!

Recipe Notes

Ice, Ice, Baby:
I always felt like pie crust was something to be fussed over, when in reality, the secret to flaky, light pie crust is doing less. Touch it less, smoosh it less, process it less.
The butter in the crust wants to be cold. The more it is touched, smooshed, or processed, the more compacted and un-magical the crust will become. This is why very cold butter and ice water, chilling, and freezing are all part of making tasty pie crust. This is also why I am also a big fan of not balling up the dough with your hands, but instead using cling wrap to gently gather it together before chilling. Little bits of butter that stay in tact (unsmooshed and cold) will form pockets and layers in the crust as the crust bakes, making it flaky as hell.

Processing:
Because we want our pie crust to be flaky as hell (duh), I recommend using a food processor to blend the dough together and keeping your hot hands out of there. (Do you have hot hands? I do!) A food processor not only keeps things cool, it also chops the butter as opposed to smearing it like your hands might. I know that not everyone has a food processor, (I didn’t have one until last year,) so I want you to know you can totally make delicious pie crust with a pastry blender. You can still use this recipe, and all of the visual clues and the pinch test still apply!

Roll Out:
If your dough sticks to your work surface, simply ball it up and start over. Turning the dough every few rolls will help avoid sticking, and you can gauge if more flour is needed.
If your dough is too dry and cracks, dip your finger tips into ice water and flick onto the dry spots. Wait a few seconds, ball it up, and start over.

Blind Baking Bonanza:
Blind baking pie crust prevents the pie crust from absorbing too much moisture from the filling, which could compromise its flakiness.
Baking the pie crust on a preheated baking sheet both during blind baking and baking with the filling ensures a nice crispy bottom, rather than a soggy one– we can’t disappoint Mary Berry, now can we??
Be sure to fully preheat the oven and get the pie crust into the oven from the freezer as quickly as possible, cause, ya know, cold butter. If the dough is not cold enough and/or the oven is not hot enough, there’s a chance your pie crust could shrink during baking.

Tender, Flaky Homemade Pie Crust Recipe | How To Make Easy Pie Crust From Scratch

Classic Pie Crust Recipe

Print Recipe

Classic Pie Crust

Course: dessert + sweets

Servings: 1 9.5" Pie Shell

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
13 tbsp very cold unsalted butter cut into 8 slices (I slice mine, then chill again before using)
6 tbsp ice water
1 egg for blind baking

Instructions

Make The Dough:

In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt to combine.
Remove the food processor lid and add the butter pieces to the flour mixture one at a time, getting a little of the flour mixture between each piece. Replace the lid and process on high for just a few seconds until the butter is broken up into petite pea-sized pieces. The mixture will look very dry.
Remove the food processor lid and drizzle 5 tbsp of the ice water over the top of the mixture. Replace the lid and pulse a few times until the mixture is the texture of cornmeal. It will still look very dry, and not at all like a dough, which is good.
Remove the lid and pinch the mixture between your pointer finger and thumb. If the mixture holds together, your pie dough is ready to chill. If it doesn’t hold together, add 1-2 tsp more of the ice water, pulse a few times, and do the pinch test again. (Be careful not to add too much water, you want the mixture to stay dry and not become wet and sticky.)
When the dough has passed the pinch test, prepare a large sheet of cling wrap. Pour the mixture out onto the cling wrap, then gather the corners of the cling wrap together to pull the mixture together into a ball. (You don’t need to squeeze it together, let the cling wrap gently pull it together.) Chill the dough ball 30 minutes in the refrigerator before rolling.

Roll The Dough:

When you’re ready to roll, remove the pie dough ball from the fridge and allow to sit out 5 minutes to thaw a bit. Flatten the ball slightly to form a disk. Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough, turning the dough 90 degrees every few rolls. This will prevent sticking and keep the thickness even all over. Add more flour to your surface as needed as you roll and turn.
Roll the dough to ⅛” thick circle, about 11-11.5” in diameter. (You can check the size by inverting your pie plate onto the center of the dough. There should be about 1.5-2” of excess dough surrounding the edge of the pie plate.)

Shape The Dough In The Pie Pan:

To transfer the dough to the pie pan, place your rolling pin on on side of the dough. Lift the edge of the dough and gently drape over the rolling pin. Continue to lift the dough off the surface, letting it drape over the rolling pin for support, until the rolling pin has reached the center of the dough and the dough is essentially folded in half with the rolling pin in the center of the fold. At this point, lift the dough by the rolling pin in its folded formation and drape over your pie pan.
Center up the dough, then loosely and gently nestle the dough into the pie pan, trying not to stretch the dough. Gently press the dough into the bottom, corners, and sides of the pie pan. Fold any overhanging dough along the edges under itself, then crimp the edge as desired. Freeze the dough in the pie pan for 20 minutes before baking.

Blind Bake The Dough:

Heat the oven to 425F with a baking sheet on the center rack. When the oven has heated, remove the pie dough from the freezer. Line the dough with parchment paper and fill with pie weights, dry beans, or rice, being sure the corners and sides of the pie dough are filled and weighed down.
Transfer directly to the preheated baking sheet and bake 15-18 minutes, or until the top edge of the crust is just slightly golden brown.
Remove the pie crust from the oven and remove the pie weights, beans, or rice by lifting the parchment by all four corners and setting aside. The crust will still look wet and raw on the bottom.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and 2 tsp water vigorously for 1 minute, or until well combined and slightly lightened in color. Brush the bottom, sides, and top edge of the crust with the egg wash. Bake the pie crust on the heated baking sheet 5-8 minutes more, or until dry and shiny. Allow the pie shell to cool completely before filling.