Pie Crust
After practicing and researching, and learning and practicing, I’ve decided that this is one of the best pie crust recipes to use.
Pie Crust
Makes: 2 9-inch pie crustsAll butter: Very buttery and yummy tasting, but the crust doesn't hold its form too well.All Crisco: Very flaky and tender but it doesn't have a buttery flavor.1/2 butter, 1/2 Crisco: very flaky, tender, and buttery!
Print Recipe
Equipment
- 1 9-inch pie pan
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 pastry cutter or 2 table knives
- 1 mixing bowl
- 1 mixing spoon
- pie weights or a package of dry beans
- parchment paper
- aluminum foil or pie crust shields
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt (slight)
- ½ cup Crisco
- ½ cup butter (very cold)
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- ⅓ cup water (ice cold – you may not need it all)
Instructions:
Pre-prep: Put everything in the fridge and freezer about 30 minutes before you want to start making the crusts. You want everything to be as cold as possible.
- Place the Crisco in the fridge.
- Dice the butter (it works best if they're even smaller cubes than in the picture) and place in the freezer for 30 minutes before you use it.
- Place the bowl, spoon, and knives (or pastry cutter) in the freezer too.
Making the Crust:
- When everything is well chilled, combine the flour and salt in the chilled mixing bowl.
- Cut in the Crisco and cubed butter until it is small pebble size.
- Add the vinegar then the ice cold water a couple Tbsp at a time, combining with a cold spoon until it becomes a shaggy, flaky dough.
- Remove from the bowl and fold over several times so everything becomes combined, but the dough is layered instead of mushy.
- Make into a ball, then flatten.
- Split into two pieces, wrap in parchment paper, and freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate for 2+ hours.
Rolling Out the Crust:
- When the crust is well chilled, preheat the oven to 350.
- Remove crust from the freezer/fridge, place another sheet of parchment paper on top, and roll out but don't place in the pan.
- Return to the freezer until the oven is completely preheated then continue with following steps.
- When the oven is preheated, remove the rolled out crust from the freezer, remove the top paper, and flip the crust over into the pie pan.
- Remove the other piece of parchment paper and center the crust in the pan.
- Press the crust a little into the pan then crimp the edges. (You can fold a strip of foil around the edges to keep them from burning.)
- Place a sheet of parchment paper inside the pie crust and fill with pie weights.
Baking the Crust:
- If you are partially blind baking the crust: Bake the crust for 12-15 minutes or until you can see it beginning to brown through the glass.
- Remove from the oven, remove the weights, parchment paper, and foil, and cool on a cooling rack.
- If you are completely blind baking the crust: Bake the pie crust for 12-15 minutes or until you can see it beginning to brown through the glass.
- Remove from the oven long enough to remove the parchment paper and pie weights and poke several holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork. (This prevents it from puffing up as it finishes baking.)
- Return to the oven and bake for 8-15 more minutes (until sufficiently browned).
- Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack.
Notes:
Most important tip: Keep everything very cold!
To insure that the crust won’t pull away from the sides and shrink up: you can make an extra-thick edge. You will use the amount of dough for 1 1/2 pie crusts (so you will have 1/2 crust left over if you aren’t making a top crust), but it will help it to not shrink up. After you have rolled out the crust and placed it in the pan, roll out more crust and cut it into 1/2-inch wide strips. Lay on top of the edges of your current crust and press together.
Sally’s Baking Addiction has some very good crust tips.
Make Ahead: You can easily make the dough up ahead of time, flatten into discs, wrap in parchment paper, and place in a Ziploc bag and freeze until the day before using. To use, remove from the freezer and place in the refrigerator overnight before using.
This is a 5-star recipe. If you want a super easy crust and don’t care so much about the flavor, using all Crisco is very simple. You don’t have to worry about things being cold and it can sit on the counter for a couple of hours before baking without hindering the texture at all.
Always parbake for pumpkin pie.