Homemade All-Butter Pie Crust

With peak pie season upon us it’s time to start brushing up on your pie making skills. Today I’m sharing my go-to recipe for homemade all-butter pie crust. Only a few simple ingredients make this perfectly flaky and tasty crust. Great to use for any of your favorite pie recipes, as well as making galettes or hand pies!

Pie Crust Ingredients

• Flour – providing the base and structure of the crust. I like to use a high quality unbleached all purpose flour, such as King Arthur Flour, for not only my pie crusts but in just about all of my baking.
• Sugar – while we don’t want the pie crust to be sweet a little bit of sugar does help blend the overall flavor and encourages browning during baking.
• Salt – nothing fancy here. I stick with regular table salt since the small crystals will incorporate more evenly into the dough.
• Unsalted Butter – adding all the flavor and flakiness to our crust! Use a high quality butter for optimal flavor and an unsalted variety so we can control the salt quantity in the recipe.
• Ice Cold Water – helping to bind all of the ingredients together into a workable dough.
• Ice Cold Vodka – the secret ingredient for an extra tender and flaky crust. Vodka provides added liquid to help our dough come together but doesn’t encourage as much gluten development as water. Too much gluten will lead to a tough dough.

Tips for Perfect All-Butter Pie Crust

• You’re probably sick of reading this by now, but it’s important to keep all of your ingredients COLD! If the butter becomes too warm it will start to melt and can turn your crust into a greasy mess instead of the flaky texture we’re going for.
• Similarly, be careful not to overwork the dough. Combine the butter and the liquids JUST until everything starts to clump together. Overworked dough can cause higher gluten formation, which equals tough dough. When in doubt err on the side of under working the dough.
• If you see streaks of butter this is a good thing!! In the picture above you’ll notice some streaks and marbling of the butter. Again, the distribution of the butter in this way helps to achieve flaky layers.

All-Butter Pie Crust

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• Prep Time: 15 min
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 2 single pie crusts or 1 double crust 1x

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Description

A simple recipe for perfectly flaky and delicious all-butter pie crust.  The foundational building block of any great pie recipe. 

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Ingredients

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• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, very cold & diced
• 1/4 cup ice water
• 1/4 cup ice cold vodka (or more ice water)

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Instructions

1. Mix together the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor by pulsing a few times.  Or mix together in a large bowl.
2. Add cold diced butter to the flour and use the food processor, or a pastry cutter, to cut the butter into the flour until the butter is well coated and about the size of large pebbles.  
3. Add in the ice water alternately with the cold vodka, about a tablespoon each at a time, then quickly pulse/mix.  Continue adding the cold liquids and mixing just until the dough begins to come together.  The dough should hold together when pinched but should not feel wet.  (You may not need all of the liquid, but I find about 1/2 cup or just under that amount of liquid to work best.)
4. Dump the dough out onto a clean surface and knead together to incorporate all of the flour.  Form dough into a large ball, then divide in half.  Mold each half into about a 1-inch high disk.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to a few days.  (You can also freeze the dough at this point.)
5. When ready to use, place the dough on the counter at room temperature for 5-10 minutes.  On a lightly floured surface lay out the dough.  Use a floured rolling pin to gently, but firmly, roll the dough out into a large circle.  Start rolling from the center of the dough and rotate a quarter of a turn after each roll.  Keep the surface, your hands and the rolling pin lightly floured to avoid sticking.  Depending on the recipe, you’ll roll the dough out to roughly a 12″ wide circle (to fit a standard 9″ pie pan), and about 1/4″ thick.
6. Proceed with your pie recipe as directed. 

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Notes

• This recipe makes 2 pie crusts, or enough for a double crusted pie.
• To make a single pie crust, half the amount of each ingredient in this recipe and continue to make as directed, forming dough into only one disk.
• If you don’t have vodka on hand, or prefer not to use it, simply replace it with more ice water.  Your pie crust will still turn out flaky and delicious.