This easy pie crust can be made from scratch at home with no mess because of the way that you mix it.
The secret lies in mixing everything in a plastic zipper bag so that it gets combined without getting your hands dirty. It’s a simple way to prep the dough, and it gives you a perfect crust every time.
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Easy homemade pie crust recipe.
Easy homemade pie crust
Equipment
- 1 plastic zipper food storage bag
- 1 set of measuring cups
- 1 set of measuring spoons
- 1 rolling pin or large dowel
- 1 pie pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup AP flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup cold cream cheese cut into small pieces
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F
- Put the flour and salt in the bag and whisk it to combine. Add the butter and cream cheese in the plastic bag and squeeze the air out, then zip the bag closed.
- Mix the fats into the flour by pressing it against the counter with your hands. Break up larger pieces of butter and cream cheese with your fingers until the fats are well-distributed in the flour in large-ish chunks.
- You don't want the fats to be totally mixed in, because pieces of fat in a pie crust will make it flakier when it bakes.
- Add the liquids to the bag by sprinkling them on the flour mixture, then closing the bag and kneading it again until the crust binds together. Try not to overwork the mixture because too much mixing will create more gluten and make the final crust tougher.
- Shape the crust into a disc inside the bag, and roll it out into a flat shape, either inside the bag or by taking it out and rolling it between two layers of plastic wrap or parchment paper.
- Get the crust as close to the diameter of the pie plate that you're using as possible, plus a little extra to fit over the edge of the pan a little.
- The crust will shrink when it's baking, so if it's extended over the edge of the pan a little that's fine.
- Fill the crust with beans or pie weights to keep the crust from puffing up, then blind bake it for about 20 minutes.
- If you don't have dry beans or pie weights, you can put another pie plate that' stacks with the ones you're using into the pan to keep the crust in place for the first baking period.
- Remove it from the oven, take the weights out, and lightly prick the surface of the crust with a fork. If you're filling it with a liquid filling don't poke holes all the way through the crust.
- Keep baking the pie crust for another 10 minutes until the bottom of the crust looks set and is a golden color.
- Remove the pie shell from the oven and let it cool off, then fill it with the pie filling and bake according to the directions for each different type of pie.
- When baking the pie with filling in it, you can wrap the edge of the crust with some aluminum foil to keep the edge from baking too much and burning.
Tips for making the pie crust.
- Don’t overmix the crust! The more handling you give it, the tougher it will end up being, which isn’t good for pies.
- This crust isn’t super flaky, it’s more like a short dough with a less-flaky texture.
- I think this crust worked better with a savory cheese and broccoli quiche than it did with a fruit pie. The texture just works better with savory things. Don’t get me wrong, it was still good in a cherry pie, but I thought that it was better in a quiche.
- This shrinks a decent amount, so if you let the crust overhand the edge of the pan by about half an inch it might end up where it’s supposed to be on the edge of the pie pan.
- This held up well to a wet batter when I used it for a vegetable quiche. Make sure to bake it completely when you do the blind baking.
- If you want to do a lattice crust you won’t be able to blind bake the crust before filling it, so make sure to bake the crust long enough to bake the bottom crust completely.
- Wrap a strip of tinfoil around the edge of the crust when baking it with the filling in it to keep it from browning too much or burning.
How to fill the pie pan with the crust.
Blind baking the crust will make sure that the whole thing is baked and the crust isn’t doughy. It will shrink when it’s baked, though, so it’s important to minimize that.
To make the savory vegetable bake, I used a tart pan with a removable bottom, so I took the center of the pan out and used it to see how large to roll out the dough.
The photo above shows that this wasn’t quite big enough, because it would need to go up the sides of the pan, I rolled it out some more to make it larger to fit the pan better.
Try to avoid adding extra flour when you roll the pie crust out, since that will add more protein to the dough and will make it tougher.
Rolling it between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper so that you can avoid adding flour. You can add a little grease to the paper if you need to if the dough sticks, or just run a spatula between the dough and the paper to separate them.
Try to keep the dough cold so that the butter stays solid. Putting the rolled-out dough in the fridge in between steps will keep it chilled.
Definitely chill the dough after it’s been put into the pie pan and before you bake it. When cold butter is baked it will give you a more flaky result instead of a chewier one.
Put the pie crust into the pan by rolling it around a rolling pin to lift it, then unrolling it in the pan. You can also just pick it up if it’s on a piece of parchment paper and turn it out into the pan.
If the crust rips during the process of putting it in the pan, press a piece of scrap dough onto the tear to cover it up.
Try not to roll the dough too much because each pass with the rolling pin will develop a little more gluten, and it will make the final crust tougher.
Press the dough into the pan and either cut it off with the edge of the pie pan or leave a little overhang to account for some shrinking when it bakes.
After the blind bake is done, fill the pie crust and bake the pie based on the recipe for the pie filling.
You can also roll the dough out and then freeze the crusts ahead of time. Defrost in the fridge then finish rolling out the dough to fill the pans when you want to make the pies.
