Perfect Pie Crust

A golden-brown pie with a decorative crust—showcasing leaf-shaped pastry designs made using classic how to make pie crust techniques—sits in a white ceramic dish on a light marble surface.

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5 from 10 votes

Make foolproof, pie crust from scratch with this recipe that makes a perfectly tender, flaky pie crust every time!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword How To Make Pie Crust, Pie Crust, Pie Crust Recipe

Prep Time 15

Resting Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Servings

Calories 1395

Author Erren Hart

Ingredients

2¾ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tablespoons vegetable oil
¾ cup unsalted butter cold and cubed
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons iced vodka or iced water ice removed, start with less, add only if needed

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together flour and salt.
Drizzle in the oil and gently toss to coat the flour.
Add cold butter and cut into the flour with a pastry cutter or your fingers until coarse crumbs form. Leave some pea-sized chunks — those melt into flaky pockets.
Add iced vodka or water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing gently with a fork just until the dough begins to clump. Press some dough in your hand — if it holds, stop. Too much liquid = sticky dough.
Divide dough into 2 discs (one slightly larger), wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.

Notes

This recipe makes a double crust. If you only need a single crust, you can either change the servings to 1 or save the 2nd disk of dough for another time.

Erren's Top Tips

Keep everything well chilled! In order to prevent shrinking and losing flakiness, it’s important to keep all of your ingredients as cold as possible when making pie crust. so be sure to use ice water and well-chilled butter.
Don’t overwork the dough. It’s important to avoid (over-mixing or overworking the dough, especially when you are adding the water, forming the disk, and rolling it.
Don’t skip resting the dough. This is an essential step. The gluten in the dough needs time to rest in between steps. This will help the pie crust from shrinking when baked.
Avoid stretching the dough. Let the dough naturally fall into the bottom of the pie pan so that it is not stretched out. Stretching can cause the dough to shrink during baking. When rolling out and transferring the dough into a pie pan, try to avoid pulling or stretching the dough. If a hole forms or you need to extend the edges on the side, it is better to cut off and press excess dough to form a patch.
Whisk an egg white with a tablespoon of water and brush it on the top of the dough and around the edges for a shiny golden finish.
Dust the crust with sugar to give it a nice crunch.

Make ahead and Freezing Instructions

The disks of dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
If freezing, let the dough thaw completely on the counter before rolling it out.

Nutrition