My PIE CRUST Recipe in 12 steps - Make Delicious Pies!!

Pie Crust - Basic Recipe
Wow Your Family and Friends with Delicious Homemade Pies!
My pies have been geplimented (and devoured) for many years... the secret to a good pie is in the pie crust! Now, you can certainly make your pie filling from scratch if fresh fruit is available, and I often do that as well. However, if you are pressed for time or have no fresh fruit on hand, just use a can of real fruit pie filling such as blueberry, cherry, or apple. Use one can for a small 8" pie or two cans for a large pie (9" or 10").
My Pie Crust recipe may surprise some people because it is so simple! Some people add fancy ingredients like egg, vinegar or milk to their crust, but in my opinion they are not necessary to achieve a fabulous pie crust. The only secret to making a really GREAT pie crust is to use REAL BUTTER and flour in the right ratio- that's all there is to it!

I have been making pies this way for almost 20 years now and have never changed a thing about my recipe because it turns out perfect every time! I am for the first time ever sharing my recipe online! I hope it will earn you a lot of gepliments as well!

1. Gather your ingredients. Use real butter (softened at room temperature) and all-purpose flour in the ratio of 1:3 (In other words, use1/3 c. butter to 1 c. flour.) Sticks of butter are convenient because they are labeled and each one is 1/2 c. Therefore, if you use 2 sticks of butter (1 c.) you will need 3 times as much flour, or 3 cups. Also remember that each 1/3 c. butter 1c. flour makes enough dough for ONE crust- so if you want a double crusted pie, make sure to calculate correctly! If you want to make 2 double crusted pies, you will need to figure enough for 4 crusts.

Below is a handy chart you can use, depending on how many crusts, or pies you want to make:
1 crust = 1/3 c. butter 1 c. flour2 crust = 2/3 c. butter 2 c. flour (makes 1 double crusted pie)3 crust = 1 c. butter (2 sticks) 3 c. flour4 crust = 1 1/3 c. butter 4 c. flour (makes 2 double crusted pies)5 crust = 1 2/3 c. butter 5 c. flour6 crust = 2 c. butter (4 sticks) 6 c. flour (makes 3 double crusted pies)
I usually make the one above (2 c. butter 6 c. flour) because it is easy. Two cups of butter is sold by the pound (4 sticks) and you end up with 3 double crusted pies. However, I sometimes make even larger quantities, because the pies freeze well also. If you enjoy baking in quantity the following chart is for you!
7 crust = 2 1/3 c. butter 7 c. flour8 crust = 2 2/3 c. butter 8 c. flour (makes 4 double crusted pies)9 crust = 3 c. butter (6 sticks) 9 c. flour10 crust = 3 1/3 c. butter 10 c. flour (makes 5 double crusted pies)11 crust = 3 2/3 c. butter 11 c. flour12 crust = 4 c. butter (8 sticks) 12 c. flour (makes 6 double crusted pies)
You can use this recipe for pumpkin pie too, keeping in mind that with pumpkin pie, you only use a single crust for each pie. Therefore if you are making two pumpkin pies, you follow the chart for 2 crust (same as 1 double crusted pie) which uses 2/3 c. butter and 2 c. flour.

2. You should have previously taken the butter out of the refrigerator to soften at room temperature, at least 2 or 3 hours (overnight is fine). Unwrap and place butter into a mixing bowl large enough to hold your flour too. Since butter unwraps more easily when it is first taken from the refrigerator, an easy way to do this is to take out the butter in the early morning and unwrap it directly into your bowl. Let it sit for 3 or 4 hours until soft.


3. Add the flour- all at once, or a little at a time... It doesn't matter. The important thing is that you cut the butter into the flour well. I just use a large fork for this. But you can use a pastry cutter if desired. When you first begin, you will be cutting the butter into smaller and smaller pieces, and you will notice the flour still appears white.


4. As you continue cutting the butter into the flour, you will notice the flour now appears yellowish. The idea is to get rid of all the big (and little) chunks of butter so that the flour is a nice even consistency and also has a consistent color throughout. Bring up some of the flour at the bottom of the bowl to make sure there are no hidden pockets of white (unmixed) flour.


5. Next, add small quantities of cold water at a time to yourbowl (while mixing if possible). How I do this is I turn on the faucet and get a nice, slow, steady stream of cold water trickling down. I balance my mixing bowl under the tap while a thin stream of water is slowly added to the bowl, directly on top of my ingredients. During this time, I am constantly stirring and mixing it into the flour, by continuing to cut the dough with my fork. My method is to draw the fork toward me in circles, as if I was "cranking" a handle for example. Remember those old jack-in-the-boxes? How you cranked the handle clockwise? This is exactly how I hold my fork to cut the butter into the dough and how I mix the water into the dough too. As water is added to the dough, it starts to begee sticky. Slow down or stop the addition of water until you are sure you are thoroughly mixing the dough, and do not have "dry" pockets in one area of the bowl and "wet" pockets in another. The secret is to add just enough water so that the dough forms a ball- the ball should not be sticky!


6.Right before you think all the dough would stick together, put the fork away and start using your hands. Knead the dough lightly, turning it over and over, just enough so that it sticks together in one clump. If it's too dry to stick together, you need to add more water.


7. Once you've achieved a solid clump of dough, you can separate it into however many crusts you wanted. I make each dough ball about the size of a fist, it seems enough for one crust. You can just look at the chart and remember how many crusts you intended to make, and thats how many balls of dough you can break off from the main clump of dough. Make a ball out of them and cover so they do not dry out while you are working on one crust. Or- if you are experienced, you can just work quickly, and leave the clump of dough together, and just break off each crust as its needed. (You'll eventually learnabout how big to make each dough ball to roll outone crust.)


8. Place your ball of dough onto the center of a clean, lightly floured surface, such as a counter top, cutting board, or pastry bag. Start in the center of the ball and work your way outwards, rolling the pie crust as thin as you can, without causing too many cracks or breaking. Sometimes I even flip it over while doing this! It shouldn't be that fragile or hard to handle. If you notice cracks in the edges, just press the dough together again, sealing up the cracks. The idea is to end up with a crust that is an inch or two larger than the diameter of your pie plate. As you can see in my photo below, the crust hangs off from the side of the pie plate. It is good to be larger than needed; not good if it is smaller than needed. If it ends up larger than necessary, just use a knife to trim away the excess. Leave about an inch overhang if possible; this will be needed later to crimp your 2 crusts together.


9. Fill the pie with your pie filling and make a 2nd crust to go over it. Place the 2nd crust on top of the filled pie. If both crusts are moist enough, they may stick together naturally with just a little pressing from you. Otherwise, wet a pastry brush with water and go around the edge of the bottom crust. Squeeze the top crust onto the bottom crust all around the perimeter of the pie and crimp it as desired. I crimp by putting my index finger of my left hand onto the upper side of the top crust and my thumb and index finger of my right hand on the underside of the bottom crust and then push my index finger (left hand) between my other 2 fingers, effectively squeezing the dough into a "V" shape. I continue to do this working my way around the crust. You can also just use a fork to make a pretty design around the edge.


10. Cut some vent holes into the top crust with a knife or by piercing it with a fork. Since I made so many pies at once, and they were all different, what I like to do is to cut an initial into the crust of what kind of pie it is. The "C" on the pie above stands for "Cherry." I also use A for apple, B for Blueberry and S for Strawberry! (When the pies gee out of the oven, I always know which one is which without cutting into them!) After poking some vent holes into the crust, use a pastry brush to moisten the top crust with milk. Then sprinkle some sugar evenly over the crust.

11. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put pies into the oven on the mid to upper shelf (not lowest shelf) and bake for 15 minutes on 425. Don't open the oven door, but turn down the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking an additional 45 minutes.

12. When baked, the crust should be a golden brown and crisp. Remove from oven (with ovenmitts!) and use caution when opening the oven door because there will be a lot of hot moist air that will escape. Such "steam" can burn your face if you aren't careful when removing the pies! I usually open the oven door for a minute or two, letting most of the steam out before trying to take out the pies. Let cool if possible before cutting. I'm sorry I don't have an "after" photo to show you- my pies were gone before I could take one!

I hope you've enjoyed my longtime pie crust recipe! I can't even tell you how many pies I've made throughout my life using this recipe!At leastmany hundreds of them- and I never had a bad one yet! When I make a lot of pies at once I usually bake 3 at a time on the top oven rack. It's possible to put a few on the lower rack too, but the crust won't brown as well and the pies will need to bake longer than usual.

If you've found my guide helpful, please vote yes below and then check out my other recipes!

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