No food processor? No problem! This all butter dough has gazillions of layers of melt in your mouth goodness. It's so easy to make pie dough by hand you'll be making pies every dang day! Grab your coffee and let's do it!
If you have a food processor try this easy food processor pie pastry!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Make this pie dough without a food processor or pastry blender.
- Get a light and flaky crust every time
- No awkward cutting in the butter
I always had trouble with pie crusts until I saw this grated butter method done on a cooking show about a million years ago. Honestly - it was pre-cable ...I think it was PBS.
You can use this buttery dough with any pie recipe. Just leave out the sugar for savory pies.
It's so easy - y'all will love it!
🧾 Ingredients
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When you're looking for the best pie crust out there keep in mind that it's not so much the ingredients that make the difference -- it's the techniques used. You won't find any secret ingredients here.
- All-purpose flour is used to keep things easy. If you prefer to use pastry flour that's fine.
- Salt should be finely ground. It gives the pastry flavor.
- Sugar helps the pie crust brown in the oven and it gives it a little sweetness. You can leave it out if you prefer - or if you're making a savory dish.
- Butter can be salted or unsalted as you prefer. Make sure it's fresh because this is where most of your flavor is going to come from.
- Water should be icy cold. You can use vodka that's been in the freezer in place of the water - it actually makes the pastry a little more flaky.
🔪 Instructions
The full instructions for this homemade pie crust recipe are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Chill all ingredients. Use a cheese grater to grate the frozen butter into the flour, sugar, and salt mixture.
- Stir to cover with flour.
- Add water a little at a time.
- Form dough into a disk, chill as instructed, then roll out and bake.
How to roll out the pie crust
- Remove the chilled dough disk from the refrigerator and let sit for 5 minutes or so to soften up a tiny bit.
- Spread a little flour on your work surface.
- Gently roll the dough out from the center, turning after each roll.
- Flip the dough over, add a bit more flour if needed to keep it from sticking and roll from the center, turning after each roll, as before.
- Continue until your homemade pie crust is the size you want - usually 8 or 9-inches.
Baking instructions for a single crust pie
You'll always defer to your recipe for how to bake the butter pie crust but if there aren't instructions, or the recipe states a baked pie crust then here's how you do it.
- Fit the dough into your pie plate, gently pressing down.
- Cut off excess dough hanging over the sides.
- Crimp the edges between your forefinger and your thumb.
- Using a fork, poke small holes all over the crust bottom and sides.
- Lay parchment paper over the dough and gently press down.
- Fill with pie weights or dried beans. This holds the crust down so it doesn't puff up.
- Freeze for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
- Remove the parchment paper and pie weights.
- Put back in the oven and bake 5 to 10 more minutes until the crust is golden.
- Cool before filling.
🥄 Equipment
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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
A good grater is a must for so many different kitchen chores! This one has a no slip bottom and is much easier to use that the one that I used in the video.
🥫 Storage
Pie dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Just make a disk and cover it with plastic wrap then put in an airtight container or zip top storage bag.
You can freeze it baked or unbaked, too. Unbaked pie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months and baked pie dough for up to 6 months as long as the freezer is free of odors.
Either way, wrap the crusts in plastic wrap before freezing.
💭 Tips
Expert Tip: When you feel the dough start to warm up or the butter seems to be softening stop what you're doing and put the pie dough in the freezer for 5 minutes.
- Make sure the butter is well chilled
- Once you've grated the butter into the flour and given it a stir go ahead and put the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm it all back up.
- Use the iciest ice water possible!
- Freeze the dough for about 10 -15 minutes at least... or refrigerate for 30.
- Use the least amount of flour to roll out the dough and keep it from sticking.
- Roll lightly from the middle - turn - and repeat.
- Place it in the pie plate and put in the freezer for 10 minutes before using.
- Unbaked pie crusts can be frozen for up to 3 months, baked for up to 6 months.
👩🍳 FAQs
You either overworked the dough... or you added too much water... or you added too much flour... or you let the butter get warm enough to melt into the flour.
1. Keep everything icy cold and chill the dough for 30 minutes before baking. 2. Don't use too much water. 3. Don't overwork the dough.
Is pie crust better with butter, lard, or shortening?
When it comes right down to it rendered leaf lard is absolutely the best fat to make the flakiest pie crust because it has a higher melting point than butter. BUT it can be super hard to find and expensive. The regular lard you'll find in most grocery stores is NOT a good substitute.
Butter has the most flavor, in my opinion, and it gives you the potential for the buttery, flaky pie crust you're craving. This is an all butter pie crust recipe and it's my favorite.
Since it is about 80% fat and 20% water the water evaporates during baking and creates more layers. More layers = flakier. The downside is that butter has a very low melting point and you have to keep it icy cold to make that flaky magic. My vote, though, is always butter for pie crust.
Shortening is 100% fat, like lard, but it has no flavor at all. I also find that it feels greasy as you chew it. It has a higher melting point and is much easier to work with than lard or butter. You can use ¼ cup shortening and ¾ cup butter in this recipe if you like.
📚 Related recipes
Once you've made the crust what are you going to do with it? Here are some of my favorite pie recipes!
- Chocolate Chess Pie is an iconic Southern dessert recipe that’s ridiculously easy, chocolate chess pie is like eating gooey brownie batter in a butter crust.
- Classic Pecan Pie is perfectly rich and gooey with tons of pecans in every bite.
- Easy Pumpkin Pie is the old fashioned classic that is required on every Thanksgiving table. One bite and you'll remember why.
- Old Fashioned Lemon Meringue Pie is tangy and sweet with a mile high cloud of fluffy meringue.
- Dutch Apple Pie has a thick layer of sweet streusel over a mound of cinnamony-sweet apples.
📞 The last word
Buttery. Golden brown. Pastry that simply disappears on your tongue in a burst of glory. A flaky pie crust recipe is worth it's weight in gold when it works - and this one does! !
So I will be totally honest with y'all. It took me almost 15 years to learn to make a decent pie crust -- and then it took me another several years to level up to amazing.
I tried hundreds of recipes and followed endless instructions. In the end I always seemed to end up with a crust that was heavy and chewy or so crumbly it was unusable
I mean, when a recipe tells you to cut in the butter until it looks like pebbles, or is the size of small peas, what does that even mean?
I don't remember when I first started grating the butter into the flour but from that point on I was hooked.
So easy.
So flaky.
Welcome to the world of perfect pastry every single time! You'll love this easy recipe! Be sure to check out the crumb crust recipe, too.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
All Butter Pie Crust
Equipment Needed
- Rolling pin
- Grater
Ingredients
Instructions
- Double the ingredients for a double crust pie.
- Chill the butter for 10 minutes or so in the freezer.
- Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
- Use the big side of the grater and grate in the butter, stopping to stir every once in awhile to cover the butter shreds with flour and keep them separate.
- Return the butter to the freezer for a few minutes when it starts to get warm. This is important!
- Stir the butter and flour mixture to make sure all the butter shreds are coated in flour.
- Slowly add the water, a little at a time, stirring with a fork.
- The dough is ready when it holds together without crumbling. You may need a little more or less water. If you need more water add it a teaspoon at a time.
- Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for 10 minutes.
- Dust the counter with flour and roll out the dough to about ⅛-inch thick.
- Add to pie plate and crimp edges.
- Freeze for 10 minutes before using as directed in your recipe.
Notes
- Make sure the butter is well chilled. Stop whenever you feel the butter warming up and put it in the freezer for a couple of minutes.
- Once you've grated the butter into the flour and given it a stir go ahead and put the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm it all back up.
- Use the iciest ice water possible!
- Freeze the dough for about 10 -15 minutes at least... or refrigerate for 30.
- Use the least amount of flour to roll out the dough and keep it from sticking.
- Roll lightly from the middle - turn - and repeat.
- Place it in the pie plate and put in the freezer for 10 minutes before using.
- Unbaked pie crusts can be frozen for up to 3 months, baked for up to 6 months.
Nutrition Facts
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.First published November 19, 2019. Last updated December 1, 2021 with better images and instructions.
Susan Bagoly
I use a pampered chef pie plate and I believe if I put it in freezer and then oven, it will crack. can that step be skipped?
Marye
Yes... but it's best to have it chilled when it goes in the oven.