Butter Flaky Pie Crust Recipe

The Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts used to be the norm at my house when I was growing up.  I didn’t know there was any different way to do it.  I had never seen anyone make a homemade pie crust before.

Many years later, after I was married, I learned that I truly enjoyed cooking and making things from scratch.  Even then, I had not yet attempted a homemade crust.  Perhaps I was intimidated by the idea, thinking it would be way too hard.

Getting ready to put all the ingredients together to make the dough!

One night, we had some friends over for dinner, and they were bringing dessert.  The wife had brought this amazing apple pie that she had made.  One taste of the crust, and I knew that Pillsbury was not present that evening.  The dough boy had been outdone by my friend’s amazing homemade pie crust!

Ready to roll!

Luckily, I had the good sense to track her down later for the recipe–one that only included four ingredients.  Yep. Only four.  And once you make your first crust from scratch, you will gladly leave the Pillsbury version at the store, along with it’s 8 extra unhealthy ingredients. The Pillsbury crust has since made it onto my list of the five worst convenience holiday foods.

Print Pin

Butter Flaky Pie Crust

Course Dessert

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 1 crust

Author Bonnie Hershey

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter chilled and diced
• 1/4 cup ice water

Instructions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt.
• Cut butter in (or use your hands) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Gradually stir in water, until mixture pushes together in a nice ball.
• At this point, the dough ball can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated until ready to use.
• Roll dough out onto a floured surface to fit a 9-inch pan. More flour may be sprinkled on top to keep dough from sticking to the rolling pin.
• Once you place the dough onto the pan, you may need to trim any uneven edges and blend these dough pieces back in where you need some more. (It's hard to get a perfect circle when you're rolling.)
• Pour in your filling and cook according to your pie's directions.