Pie Crust Recipe

Why You NEED to Make This Pie Crust Recipe This Year

• It’s easy. No heavy lifting with this recipe as a food processor makes quick work of the dough, no pastry cutter needed (and I’ve include notes in case you don’t have a pastry cutter).
• It’s flavorful. And flaky, and buttery, and I could go on…. My secret ingredient (sour cream, trust me on this) adds beautiful depth of flavor to the pie, without revealing its origin to the taster. This pie crust is truly tasty enough to eat on its own.
• It makes enough. This recipe will fit easily in a 9″ or a 10″ pie plate. It makes enough that you won’t have to worry about fussing with a paper-thin, fragile sheet of pie dough. It folds under itself on the edge of the plate for a sturdy, substantial crust (which you’re going to want, once you taste it). I’ve been using this recipe for over a decade, but several years ago bumped up the ratios a bit to make sure I had plenty to work with, without it being too much excess to handle, either.
• Great for blind baking, too. Or making a lattice pie crust, or pie crust cookies, or just using anywhere you need a pie crust. Oh, and did I mention it doubles like a dream?

This shockingly simple pie dough works perfectly for blind baking (great for making apple pie or pecan pie), and can easily be doubled for two-crust pies or a lattice pie crust.

What You Need

You don’t need anything fancy or complicated to make my homemade pie crust recipe–just five common ingredients you probably already have:

• Flour. Use all-purpose flour, and make sure you’re measuring your flour properly, or you may end up with a dry, crumbly crust.
• Sugar. The small bit of sugar in this recipe can be eliminated, but I like that it adds a subtle flavor to the end result.
• Salt. Just a little salt flavors this homemade pie crust without making it salty.
• Butter. Your butter should be very cold when you drop it into your dry ingredients. You can pop it in the freezer for a few minutes before you are ready to start making your crust to make sure it’s cold enough. Use unsalted butter since we are adding salt ourselves. For an even more flavorful crust, splurge for European-style butter.
• Sour cream. Yep, sour cream! Sour cream is the secret ingredient in my pie crust recipe (and in my sour cream pound cake, among others!). Using sour cream takes a lot of the guesswork out of this recipe and there’s no fussing with various amounts of ice water. It gives this homemade pie crust a lovely depth of flavor that is not overwhelming or obvious, but does add an extra special subtle touch to the finished product. Mostly, though, I just love it because it makes this recipe so easy! If you don’t have sour cream, full-fat Greek yogurt will also work, but try to use sour cream if you can!

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Homemade Pie Crust

Pie dough in food processor beginning to cling together (described in step 2 below)

1. Pulse dry ingredients together in the bowl of a food processor. Add cubed cold butter and pulse a few times until your mixture is combined and resembles coarse crumbs, but note that you should still have distinguishable pieces of butter remaining in the food processor, aim for chocolate-chip-sized bits!
2. Add sour cream, and pulse a few more times until mixture is still crumbly but beginning to cling together.
3. Transfer dough onto a clean surface and gently, quickly work into a ball before flattening into a disk. Wrap disk in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 45-60 minutes.
4. Remove dough from fridge and roll out to a 12″ circle. Arrange in pie plate and crimp/flute the edges before blind baking or filling.

Tips for Success

While this recipe is designed to be straightforward, here are a few things you can do to guarantee your success:

• Make sure your ingredients are cold. This is so important, the butter should be ice cold (I place mine in the fridge for up to 30 minutes before beginning). Cold butter = flaky, tender pie crust. Warm butter could even leak out of the dough.
• Don’t overdo it. Don’t overwork the dough. The food processor is a boon to the pie making process but can quickly overdo it if you’re not careful. You want to have some pieces of butter remaining, go just until the dough will cling together. If it’s overdone, the crust could be too tough or it won’t be flaky.
• Pulse means pulse. Do not simply blend the dough nonstop. Pulse in 1-second intervals, otherwise you’ll end up with a wet, overworked dough.
• Don’t let it stick. As you roll your dough, it will warm and becomes prone to sticing to the counter surface. To avoid this, generously flour your surface before beginning and, periodically, turn the dough. If it sticks, slide a thin spatula to pry it free and add more flour beneath the crust.
• Move it carefully. This is a sturdy crust, but kitchens get warm, especially if your ovens are blazing cooking Thanksgiving side dishes and whatnot. Take care when transferring your dough, gently wrap it up around the rolling pin and use that to carry it to the pie plate and gently unroll it (I demonstrate this in the video).
• Chill the dough. Again, cold dough is key to perfect pie crust. However, if yours is cracking as you try to roll it, it may be too cold. Let it rest at room temperature for 5 minutes, then try again.