Using only 4 ingredients, this flaky butter pie crust recipe might stand out more than the pie filling itself! It’s the most perfect pie crust.
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This easy flaky pie crust recipe is so simple and delicious, you’ll want to keep this recipe in your back pocket at all times!
The butter in the pie crust is a key ingredient that gives it its characteristic taste. When baked, the buttery layers in the crust create a crisp and delicate texture, while the flavor of the butter enhances the overall taste.
Ultimately, the taste of a flaky crust compliments the filling of the pie, whether it’s a sweet fruit pie or a savory quiche, and adds a delicious, buttery undertone to every bite.
The Players for Flaky Butter Pie Crust Recipe
Using simple ingredients that you might already have in your kitchen, you can make your own homemade pie crust anytime!
Ingredients:
- Butter – I normally like to use salted butter because that’s what I buy at Costco. But you can absolutely use unsalted butter and add 1/2 teaspoon salt. And make sure your butter is cold. Using cold butter cubes is what makes the flakiest crust.
- Flour – All-purpose flour is a must in this recipe. You might need a little extra flour when rolling out your pie crust dough.
- Ice Water – I like to have a small measuring cup filled with water and ice cubes on hand. You want your water to be really cold. Using cold water slows down the gluten development in the flour, ensuring a more tender and delicate crust.
- Salt – If you’re using unsalted butter, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to your dough. If you’re using salted butter, add 1/8 teaspoon salt. Note: For 15+ years, I’ve never had a problem using salted butter for baking. I know all the experts say to use only unsalted butter, but I personally just like using salted butter. You do you friend!
Tools:
- Pastry Cutter – Using a pastry blender or dough cutter is very helpful when it comes to combining the dough for this easy pie crust recipe. Using a pastry cutter minimizes the contact between your warm hands and the cold fat, helping to preserve the desired temperature.
Cubed Cold Butter for Flaky Butter Pie Crust
I mentioned making sure your butter is cold. But I should also mention, what I like to do is cut my butter into 16 equal-sized squares. I then place the cubed butter back into the fridge to keep the butter as cold as possible.
Once you cut the butter into smaller pieces, butter tends to become room temperature rather quickly, so placing it back into the fridge will help keep the cool temperature we need.
Ice, Ice Baby
Pie dough works a lot better when all the ingredients are cold. I like to put ice and water into a small measuring cup and place it in the fridge when ready to use. I also throw in a metal tablespoon to get that super chilled too!
How to Make Flaky Butter Pie Crust Recipe
I always cut my butter and flour together first before adding any water to it. I love using a pastry cutter to do this, or you can certainly use two forks.
If that’s too much work on your hands, definitely use the pulse setting on a food processor. However, using a food processor doesn’t allow complete control over the mixing process like your hands would.
You basically want to create a mixture that resembles sand and is pretty crumbly.
Add in your cold water
Once you have your butter fairly incorporated into the flour, now’s the time to add in your cold water one tablespoon at a time.
The amount of water I use varies from time to time. Sometimes it’s 3 tablespoons of ice water, other times it’s 4. Just add a tablespoon at a time until your dough resembles something similar to my picture above. Not too wet, not too dry.
If anything you’ll want it more on the wet side, because when you roll out your dough, you add a little flour to prevent sticking, which will get incorporated into the dough.
Turn your dough into a disc
Once you’ve got your flaky butter pie crust together, you’re going to place your dough into plastic wrap.
Ideally, you’ll want this pie dough to rest in your fridge for a couple of hours. However, I’ve let it sit in my fridge while preparing my filling before, so maybe 20-30 minutes, and have had no problems working with it!
Form your dough into a flat disc, not a ball. Creating a disc allows the dough to chill faster and more evenly.
Once it’s chilled, it’s ready to use! On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough to at least 13 inches, for a 9-inch pie dish. Once it’s rolled out to about 1/4″ thick, I like to roll my dough back onto the rolling pin to make transferring to my pie dish easier.
This recipe makes one pie dough crust, so if you’re looking to make a double-crust pie, double the recipe and split the dough as evenly as possible. You can use your second pie dough for a lattice top, double-crust pies, or you can freeze the dough to use for another day.
How to Bake Flaky Butter Pie Crust Recipe
If you’re baking a pie that requires the filling to not be baked or needs little baking time, you’ll need to blind bake your pie crust. Blind baking a pie crust is a technique used to pre-bake the crust before adding the filling. This helps ensure that the crust is fully cooked and remains crisp.
To blind bake your pie, place your pie dough into your pie pan. Line parchment paper inside your pie dough and add some type of weight to keep the pie dough from rising in the oven.
My favorite type of pie weights to use are ceramic pie weights. These help keep empty pie shells from shrinking and bubbling during the blind baking process. If you don’t have pie weights, you can use dried beans or rice to help keep the bottom crust in place.
Place your pie in your preheated oven with the pie weights, and bake your pie crust for about 15-20 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment paper and weights from the crust. You can do this by lifting the parchment paper corners. Be careful as the weights may be hot.
Return the empty crust to the oven and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the bottom of the crust is lightly golden brown. Once the crust is fully baked, remove it from the oven and let it cool completely before adding your pie filling.
Pies that usually require blind baking:
- Single crust pies like chocolate cream, pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie, banana cream pie, sweet potato pie, etc.
- Fruit Tarts filled with fresh fruits or fruit preserves, such as a strawberry tart or lemon tart, often call for blind baking
- Quiches, both savory and quiches Lorraine, are baked savory pies with a custard-like filling. Blind baking is essential to prevent a soggy crust when adding the quiche filling.
- Meringue Pies like lemon meringue pie or chocolate meringue pie require blind baking because the meringue topping is added to a pre-baked crust. This helps the crust stay crisp under the weight of the meringue.
- No-Bake Pies that are not baked at all, such as key lime pies or no-bake cheesecake pies, often require blind baking to ensure the crust is fully cooked, along with custard or pudding fillings.
Pies that require no blind baking:
- Apple Pie
- Cherry Pie
- Blueberry Pie
- Peach Pie
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Cobblers, Crumbs, & Crisps
Storing and Freezing Flaky Butter Pie Crust Recipe
I love to make this easy recipe up to 3 days in advance and keep the dough in my refrigerator until ready to use. Even though this flaky butter pie crust recipe is super easy to make, making it ahead of time really cuts down on your pie-making time!
Alternatively, you can freeze this dough for up to 3 months. I would double-wrap it in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and stick it into a freezer gallon-sized bag.
Pin it for later!
I really hope you enjoy this incredibly simple flaky butter pie crust recipe and if you do end up trying it, let me know what you make with it! Savory, sweet? What’s your preference?
Looking for other sweet treats? Check out these easy dessert recipes next!
- Arkansas Possum Pie Recipe
- A Classic, Homemade Blueberry Pie Recipe
- Delicious and Fudgy Lunchbox Brownies Recipe
- Starbucks Iced Lemon Loaf Copycat Recipe
- Easy Homemade Fresh Strawberry Sheet Cake Recipe
- Starbucks Copycat Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin Recipe
- The Best M&M Monster Cookies with Peanut Butter
- Homemade Lunchbox Mini Funfetti Cupcakes Recipe
How to Make the Best Flaky Butter Pie Crust Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) cubed and chilled
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3-4 tbsp ice cold water
Instructions
- Cut your butter into small squares. I like to make 16 equally sized cubes and stick butter into fridge to continue cooling.
- Get a small measuring cup and fill with ice and add about 1/2 cup water. You'll only be needing several tablespoons of water. I like to stick this into the fridge with the butter so both are equally chilled
- With a pastry cutter or two forks or a food processor, combine the all purpose flour and salt together.
- Cut your butter a few cubes at a time into the flour, combining until you get a sandy mixture.
- Adding a tablespoon at a time, add the ice cold water to your butter and flour mixture. Adding just enough water until the dough comes together. Should not exceed 4 tablespoons.
- On a piece of saran wrap, shape your dough into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes or up to 2 hours before using.
- Once chilled to your liking, place dough on lightly floured surface and roll out to about 12"-13" (a few inches bigger than your pie dish to allow for shrinking when baking. Roll dough slowly onto rolling pin for easy transferring to pie dish. Bake or fill with desired filling.
Colossians 1:11 - "being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience"
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