The Ultimate Pie Crust

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After experimenting with more pie crust recipes than you can imagine over the past 50 years, I can say without hesitation that this one is the absolute best and the only one you’ll ever need. Every time I’ve tried another one, I’ve come right back to this one.

There are exceptions—certain tart recipes call for different crusts—some with egg, some with sugar, some with flavorings. Then there are nut crusts and cookie crusts, and one with grated vegetables that I use for quiche. But for a basic roll-out pastry crust, this is the only one you’ll ever need.

Why should you bother when you can buy a frozen crust and be done with it?

Let’s consider what you want in a pie crust.

You want it to taste good. If it doesn’t taste good, why bother?

The frozen ones don’t have much flavor.

You want the dough to be workable. If you want to transfer your dough from its little aluminum foil pan to a deeper pan, fuggedaboudit. It will crack and you’ll have a hard time getting it back together. It’s not very forgiving. Same thing if you want to flute it yourself so that it doesn’t look machine made. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The same can be said for the frozen crust that comes folded in a box.

Then there are the ingredients … read the label. No thank you.

And frozen crusts are not tender and they’re not flaky.

You want it to be reasonably easy. Many people, even good cooks, are intimidated by the thought of pastry making. No doubt a frozen one is easier, but I’m going to show you some tricks that will make your crust come out perfect, every time, even your first time. I promise

I get very frustrated when I have to struggle to make the dough be enough. Especially if I’m making a fruit pie with the fruit piled high in the pan. This recipe makes more. You’ll have enough to make a crust for 3 singled crust pies, or enough for one deep dish, double crust pie with some left over.

So what will you do with any leftover dough? Roll out the extra dough and use it to cut out the shapes of your choice with a cookie cutter. For example, I have a small maple leaf cutter. I make enough maple leaves to decorate the circumference of my maple pecan pie.

Lay your cut-outs artfully over the top of your single crust pie, then brush them with and egg wash and sprinkle them with sugar. For a double crust pie, brush the top crust of the pie with egg wash, then decorate it with your cut-outs, and brush the cut-outs with more of the egg wash. The egg wash on the crust will act as glue for your cut-outs. Then give it your sugar sprinkle to make it glisten.

About the ingredients:

Flour—the way to measure flour is to set your measuring cup on a sheet of parchment paper.

Spoon the flour into the cup from your flour bin. Do not use the measuring cup to scoop the flour. It will compact it and the measurement will be off.

Level the cup with the flat side of a knife.

Then pick up the parchment , fold it over to make a funnel, and dump the excess flour back in the bin.

Sugar—a touch of sweet is always good. Unless it’s a savory pie, such as a meat and/or vegetable pie. If that’s the plan, eliminate the sugar.

Salt—gives the dough strength and is important for the flavor.

Butter—butter is delicious. Butter and better baking begin with B.

Organic palm oil—solid vegetable shortening makes the crust flaky. An all butter crust isn’t flaky. An all shortening crust isn’t very tasty. Organic palm oil is unsaturated and naturally solid at room temperature. It’s a healthy alternative to commercial shortening and doesn’t have the nasty mouth feel of Crisco.

White wine or vinegar—acid interrupts the gluten from developing elasticity and makes for a tender crust. It’s a science thing.

Ice water—Just enough for the dough to pull together. The colder, the better. You want to keep that butter solid.

Egg wash—for shiny, golden brown finish.

Pearl Sugar—optional, but it looks so pretty and professional, and I love the bit of crunch that they add. 

Tools:

a pastry cutter or food processor—to cut the fats into the flour. A food processor is faster and easier, but you run the risk of over-working the dough. You need to pulse it for literal seconds.

A bench knife—for working the dough on your countertop. I’m in love with this one.

A rolling pin—for rolling the dough out, obviously. 😊

There are two I recommend; it’s a matter of choice: There’s a certain elegance to a French tapered rolling pin and once you become adept at manipulating it, the tapered ends makes it easier to get a good circular roll out. I love this one.

This standard wooden rolling pin is a good weight and has a nice smooth finish. I love that it comes with silicone rings, as it takes the guess work out of getting the dough to the right thickness for your crusts and cookies.

I have both and wouldn’t give up either one.

Parchment paper—to roll the dough out on. This makes it much easier to transfer to your pie plate. I love these pre-cut sheets. No trimming needed.

Plastic wrap—to cover the dough and act as a barrier between the dough and the rolling pin. No sticking! This one from Costco is, in my opinion, the best. Easy to handle, frustration free, does the job. If you don’t have a membership you can get it here.

A five wheel pastry cutter for making lattice top pies—optional, but if you want to make lattice crusts, it’s indispensable for making perfect even strips. I’ve had this one for almost 40 years and it’s as good as it was on the day I bought it.

A pie plate—first choice is metal. It will give you the flakiest crust. Second choice is glass. It does the same thing, almost but not quite as well. Try not to use your gorgeous ceramic pie dish. It’s heartbreaking, I know. But it’s not great for making a great crust.

Kitchen Scissors—to trim the doughfor a professional look. These will get this job done nicely, and are also a great all-around tool to have. You want to have a pair of precision scissors that are for food, and only for food.

An oven—because even on the hottest summer day in Florida, the hood of the car won’t cut it.

 the Ultimate pie crust

Ingredients:

3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 ½  teaspoons kosher salt

24 ounces cold butter (3 sticks)

1/2 cup solid organic palm oil, chilled in the fridge

1 ½  teaspoons white wine or vinegar

3 T ice cold water.

Method:

• Hand method: Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large flat bowl.

Add the butter and palm oil, cut into bits.

Use a pastry cutter to cut in the fat, using a gentle chopping and rocking motion, until you achieve the consistency of coarse sand. Drizzle the wine or vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture and mix it together gently, with a fork, until it just comes together. If it’s too dry, add the third tablespoon of water.

• Food processor method: Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and palm oil, in small pieces. Pulse the machine on and off in very short spurts until the fat has been broken down into small bits.  Add the wine or vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the ice water and give it a couple of short pulses, just until the dough comes together. If it’s too dry, add the third tablespoon of water.

• If the dough is still too crumbly you can add a little more water, one tablespoon at a time. The less water you can get away with adding, the more tender your crust will be, but obviously you need to add enough to form a dough. The flour you’re using and the humidity of the room will vary and they will affect the amount of water you’ll need.

Remember, you don’t want a perfectly blended dough. The visible bits of fat will create pockets while baking, giving you that flaky crust.

• When your dough just comes together, turn it out onto a sheet of parchment. Use a bench knife to divide the dough. If you want to be exact, weigh your dough and divide it evenly. Otherwise, just eye it.

If you’re making 3 bottom-crust-only pies, divide the dough into 3 equal parts.

If you’re making one deep dish pie, divide the dough in half.

• Gently roll each portion into a ball with your hands and wrap them individually in plastic wrap. Press down on each ball to flatten it into a disc. Put them into the refrigerator and chill them for at least an hour. This will let the gluten relax and get that dough super old, both critical for that tender flaky crust.

They can stay a day or two in the fridge. if need be. You can also freeze them for up to three months. If you’re going to freeze them, wrap them tightly in foil, over the plastic wrap.

• When you’re ready to make your pie crust, take out one disc of dough and place it on a large sheet of parchment. You can use the same sheet of parchment that you used before. Let the dough sit out for a bit until it softens enough to roll. Here’s a trick: Grab a pencil. Turn your and pie plate upside down, set it on the parchment, and trace the circle with a firm hand. Then turn the parchment over, pencil side down. You should still be able to see your tracing. Start with your disk of dough in the center of the circle. You now have a guide as to how big to roll out your dough circle. You want it to be a little bigger than the tracing, so that it can come up the sides with some left over.

• Cover the disk of dough with a large sheet of plastic wrap. This method will keep your rolling pin from sticking and eliminate the need to add more flour.

• Start rolling from the center out, turning your rolling pin in all directions—again, to make a circle large enough to line the pie plate and come up over the sides. If your plastic wrap sheet isn’t big enough, just add a second sheet.

• Peel off the plastic wrap and pick up the dough with the parchment. Position the parchment over your pie plate so that the dough is centered. Press it into the pan and up the sides, then peel away the parchment. This eliminates the need to drape your crust over your rolling pin.

Flute the edge: for a single crust pie, trim off the excess dough evenly with your scissors and flute the edge using your fingers. Go around the circle, using the knuckle of your right forefinger to push in the dough from the inside, while supporting the section from the outside with the first two fingers of of your left hand. See below how to blind bake a pie shell, if your recipe wants you to do that.

For a double crust pie of any type, you’ll trim the dough later. For now, let the excess hang.

• Pour in your filling.

Now you’ve got choices:

For a standard double crust pie, roll out the second crust on parchment, the same way you did the first one. Position it over the top of your filling. Now, trim the two crusts together, leaving enough excess to fold up and make a nice fluted top, using the same method described above. Make a few holes or slits in the crust for air to escape as it bakes. Then brush the top with an egg wash made from beating an egg with a teaspoon of water until well combined. Sprinkle all over, lightly, with granulated sugar. Then, sprinkle on some pearl sugar if you’d like to do so.

For a lattice topped pie, roll out the second crust the same way you did the first one but instead of rolling a circle, roll a square/rectangle. Remove the plastic wrap and use your 5 wheeled pastry cutter to cut strips of dough. Set the wheels at 1 inch apart and tighten the nut. Be sure to press down hard as you wheel the cutter across the dough, to make clean cuts all the way through.

Lay out strips of dough over your pie in one direction, leaving a little space between them. You’ll probably need 6 strips. Then pick up an end of every other strip and fold it back over itself, almost to the end.

Now we’ll start weaving—Lay another strip perpendicular to the ones you’ve laid down, all the way across, covering the three strips that were not folded back. Then unfold those folded strips to go over your new strip. Now fold back the three strips that you left long the first time. Lay your second strip across, again leaving some space between. Then fold down the strips you had folded up this time. See your pattern emerging?

Again, fold up the three strips you folded up the first time. Lay another strip across and then unfold those strips to cover it. Keep going, alternating every other row until your pie is covered with a beautiful lattice. Use your fingers to press the edges of the strips into the overhang of the bottom crust. Trim it evenly with scissors, then fold up the crimped edge all the way around, and flute it in the way described above.

Brush the top with egg wash, sprinkle some granulated sugar over the top, and add some pearl sugar if you’d like to.

Bake your pie according to the directions in your recipe.

If your pie recipe calls for blind baking the shell, here’s how to do it:

Preheat the oven to 350°

Once your crust is rolled out and pressed into your pie plate, slide the pie plate into the fridge for at least two hours. Don’t skip this step, tempting as it may be. This will help to keep the crust from shrinking when you bake it.

Line your crust with aluminum foil—bottom and sides—and fill it with all the way up with pie weights, granulated sugar, rice, or dry beans. They all work.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges are beginning to color.

Then remove the pie plate from the oven and remove the weights and the parchment. Save whatever you used for weights in a jar and you can use them again for the same purpose next time. You now have a partially baked crust, if that’s what your recipe calls for. Add your filling and bake according to directions;

If you won’t be baking the crust again with its filling, dock the crust after removing the foil and weights. That’s a fancy way of saying, take a fork and poke holes all around the bottom and sides. Then bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden.