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Making homemade pie crust is easy with this recipe for the perfect pie dough!
How To Sign Up:
If you’d like to join the cooking classes challenge, sign up by joining the Cooking 101: The Basics group on Facebook. Over there you can ask questions, post tips and recipe photos, and help each other along the way.
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If you are following along, the please grab a class button. Put it on your sidebar and/or in your recipe posts you link up (just link it to my home page). I’d love for you to share the classes with your family, friends, on Facebook, and on Twitter!
How the Classes and Challenge Work:
Cooking 101: The Basics is a 16 week class on Wednesdays. I will post a new recipe with tips on getting great results along with pictures. It’s like your own personal online cooking school! Take as long as you need, but once you make the recipe (or a similar version) come back and add your link to the post to share with everyone. No blog…no worries…add your pictures to the Facebook group, we’d all love to see them!
Got questions? Email, leave a comment, but the best place will be the facebook group!
Grab your aprons and let’s get cooking!
WEEK #16 – HOMEMADE PIE CRUST
WOW! Can you believe all the wonderful recipes we’ve made in this 16 week series? It’s sad to see it come to an end, but I hope that doesn’t keep you from cooking from scratch. Plus…I’m thinkin’ about a Cooking 202 series. What do you think? Wouldn’t that be super fun?!?!
I have always loved baking from scratch, but the one thing that has always scared me was pie crust. Finally, a couple years ago I bit the bullet and gave it a try. Seriously folks…it’s super duper easy. Especially if you have a food processor. It was easier than dealing with the prepackaged dough that comes in the fridge section at the grocery store….you know the one. Did you know that it is filled with food dyes and other nasty things? Yep, read the package. BLECH!
Pie season is just around the corner, so give it a shot now. That way you will know what you are doing in a couple months when it’s time to bake all those pies!
Homemade Pie Crust (Perfect Pie Dough)
Making homemade pie crust is easy with this recipe for the perfect pie dough!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 16 tbsp unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
- 6 tbsp ice water
Instructions
- Combine flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a processor. Process briefly to blend dry ingredients. Pulse about 8-10 times in one second pulses to work the butter into the flour. Stop when the butter is the size of peas.
- Pour the water onto the mixture and do short pulses to incorporate water. The dough should be just wet enough that it will stick together when you pinch it. (Add additional water by the tablespoon as needed).
- Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a ball, wrap each in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface.
- Use as directed in your desired pie recipe (see notes and how to pre-bake the dough below).
Gluten Free/Vegan Dough
- 9 oz gluten free flour blend
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp guar gum
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces vegan buttery sticks (like Earth Balance)
- 2 ounces butter-flavored shortening
- 1/3 cup cold water
- Cube the buttery sticks and shortening into 1-inch pieces. Place in freezer for about 15 minutes to chill.
- Put the flour into a large food processor bowl. Pulse the the flours to blend them. Add the xanthan gum, guar gum, and salt. Pulse to combine. Reserve about 1/8 cup flour for dusting area when rolling out dough.
- Add frozen "butter" to the flour. Pulse about 8-10 times in one second pulses to work the butter into the flour. Stop when the "butter" is the size of peas. Pour the water onto the mixture and do short pulses to incorporate water. The dough should be just wet enough that it will stick together when you pinch it. (Add additional water by the tablespoon as needed).
- Bring the dough together into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap. Flatten it, gently, into a disc. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- When ready to work with dough, lay down one piece of parchment paper with reserved flour, then put the dough on top of the parchment. Cover the disc with second piece of parchment (large enough to roll out the dough to cover your pie dish by a couple inches). Gently, roll out the dough, from the center out.
- When the dough is in a large circle, remove top layer of plastic wrap. Gently move the dough into a 9-inch pie pan. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Dough is ready for use in a recipe that doesn't require a pre-baked crust.
Pre-Bake Dough:
- If you need a pre-baked crust, place a piece of aluminum foil onto the bottom of the pie dough. Fill the foil with dried beans. Bake the pie dough at 400F for about 20 minutes. Remove the beans and aluminum foil, then return the pie dough to the oven for an additional 8 minutes. Crust is now ready to fill and bake in your favorite pie recipes.
Notes
- Dough can be frozen for up to 2 months, just thaw completely in the refrigerator when ready to use.
- The key to a flaky crust is to work with the dough as little as possible.
- Nutrition shown is for the entire batch of pie dough.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 2921Total Fat: 191gSaturated Fat: 116gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 64gCholesterol: 506mgSodium: 1557mgCarbohydrates: 265gFiber: 9gSugar: 26gProtein: 39g
Nutrition shown is for the entire batch of pie dough. Figures are estimated based on products I used.
{Last week: Biscuits}
This is the last week of Cooking 101 Basics….check out the Overview page with a list of all the online classes and feel free to join the discussion on the facebook group. We will still be chatting over there….
Love the recipe and will try it. Many pre-prepared pastry mixes cause me terrible indigestion. I’ll let you know if your pie crust works for my stomach!