How to Make Perfect Flaky Pie Crust (with videos!)

We all need a foolproof (or almost) recipe for pie crust, the flaky kind, the one that can be used during the holiday season, and also for fruit pies. This is a basic recipe that can be made in the food processor or by hand. It uses few ingredients (shortening for flakiness and butter for flavor) and can be frozen.

As much as I love my all-butter shortcrust pastry, sometimes you want to make and old-fashioned pie and that calls for our trusted recipe that also use shortening. This is my go-to recipe and it is really good.

I have to admit that there's probably nothing like shortening to achieve that flakiness that almost resembles puff pastry, but in a recipe that is easy to make, where we can take shortcuts like using the food processor.

Ingredients

They are very simple so buy the best you can afford.

• Butter: it gives the pie crust flavor and is less greasy than shortening. Use unsalted and make sure it's cold.
• Shortening: it gives the pie dough unmistakable flakiness. Use it cold also.
• Sugar: it's a small amount but good if you're using it for a sweet pie recipe.
• Flour: I use all-purpose flour mostly, but sometimes cake flour if that's all I have.
• Water: it's mandatory that the water be very cold, that's why we use iced water. The colder the ingredients, the better the result.
• Salt: I use sea salt or kosher. But regular table salt also works if that's all you have.

Easy steps

As with the other pie crust recipes in this blog (basic pie crust and Italian pie dough) the mixing method is pretty similar.

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WATCH THE STEP-BY-STEP VIDEO 👇🏻

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Rolling the dough

If you organize the space, this is an easy step.

The video in this post shows how to roll the pie crust and line a pan, which can be made by crimping the edges or using the rolling pin as shown in the video. It depends a lot on the type of pie you're making.

Lining the pan

After rolling the dough, the most simple way I know to line the pie dish is by folding the dough in half, placing it in the middle of the pie plate (images below) and then simply unfolding it. As you can see, it covers the plate perfectly and makes it easier to continue with the fitting and crimping of the edges.

Blind baking

Blind baking is pre-baking the dough with weight on top. It is called like that because the raw pie dough is completely covered with paper (parchment paper or aluminum foil) and weight.

If left to chance without piercing and/or blind baking the pie dough will puff as it bakes and then shrink. We don't want that. We want it to keep the shape as much as possible so that we have enough space for the filling. Also, some fillings tend to seep into the unbaked dough while baking, so this step ensures that the dough develops a layer before the pie is filled and is not soggy after it is baked.

1. Make sure the oven is preheated according to the recipe instructions.
2. The pie crust must be cold or frozen and already in the pie pan.
3. Cover it with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
4. Add some weight: ceramic ones like in the images below, or use raw rice, chickpeas, lentils, even flour. Any ingredients that will not burn and will weigh the paper down.
5. Bake for 15 minutes until you can remove the paper with the weight. Do this carefully to make sure you don't burn your hands and take out the whole thing at once.
6. Bake the pie crust 5-10 minutes longer, until barely colored and dry.

Top tips

• Cold ingredients - I can't stress enough how important this is. Temperature is a deal-breaker when it comes to making flaky yet tender doughs. I dice the butter and shortening and put them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes right before starting to make this recipe. And make sure you have ice water (if you don't have ice cubes put the water in the freezer before starting also).
• Don't overwork it - another crucial tip. When you touch the mixture too much the butter and shortening start to melt and mix too much with the flour, and that is not what we want. That's why using a food processor is good for mixing those ingredients together, because you don't touch them much. Some people have colder hands but some don't (like myself), so mix the whole thing just until it's come together, but don't knead it as you would bread for example.
• Resting time - when the flour is mixed with other wet (water) or fatty (butter) ingredients the gluten starts to develop. That is good for bread but not at all for a pie crust. That's why we need to let it rest after the dough comes together. That time relaxes it and accomplishes two things: it allows the pie dough to roll easily without forcing it, and it hardens the butter again ensuring flakiness.

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Let me know in the comments below if you made this recipe and loved it, and if you had issues, so we can troubleshoot together. I love to hear what you think, always. Thanks for being here, it's much appreciated.
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