All Butter Pie Crust Dough
You know you’ve hit the jackpot with All Butter Pie Crust Dough when it falls apart after it’s baked! Huh!!! Whaat? Yes! It’s true… we have entered pie contests and the pies that win Best In Show always have pies with super flaky crusts that fall apart during serving. In fact, we’ve seen people sweating over whether they made the right decision on the crust, but we always tell them, just wait and see… and sure enough… they win!
Watch the video all the way through before making your pie dough. Then read the tips below to help you make the perfectly flaky all butter pie crust dough!
Pie is one of those things that my sweetie pie just has a knack for. You could say that it’s built into his genes. He comes from a long line of pie makers. His grandma used to back pies professionally. She learned from a French pastry chef. One of the secrets that his mom remembers and has been passed down from the French chef was to use water sparingly, “as if it were gold.” Another thing he mentioned was the water must be ice cold when it is added.
Making Pie by Hand or with a Food Processor?
My sweetie pie works hard to make amazing pies. He cuts in the butter by hand and then adds water in a little at a time, making sure the dough never gets too wet. His technique can be found here for those of you who want to make the pie by hand. You will not be disappointed with the results. I am doing something very different with this post. I’m trying to produce a pie crust that tastes equally amazing and has layers and layers of flakiness, BUT ALSO can be made super quickly in the food processor. Some have said this is cheating. I don’t agree! I think a food processor is a tool that can help us be even more efficient in the kitchen. And honestly, I don’t have hours to make pie sometimes 😉
If you have made pies by hand for a long time, I think you are going to be amazed. The food processor can bring your all butter pie crust dough together in about 3-4 minutes. The steps are important. You are not adding all the flour in at the beginning. You actually wait and add some flour in after the butter has been turned into the dough. This creates huge chunks of buttery dough as seen above. It’s crucial to still chill the butter ahead and to add ice cold water, but the processor cuts the time of making the dough to minutes rather than an hour.
All I’m using is a standard Kitchen Aid Food Processor. I’ve fallen in love with this thing! It chops, it slices, it makes my life so much easier in the kitchen 🙂 And now that it makes all butter pie crust dough for me in minutes, I might just have to get them as gifts for family for Christmas!
The Secret to Amazing Pie Dough is in the Type of Butter You Use
The other thing I want to mention is the butter. If you want to become an amazing baker, consider using European butter. It will make a world of difference not only in the flavor but in how things cook and bake for you. Pie dough in particular depends on butter to help create the lovely flaky layers that we’ve all grown to love. We usually keep 3-4 packages of Kerrygold Irish butter on hand for baking. When you know you want to make pie, put a package of butter in the freezer to get it super cold.
Using a Clear Pyrex Dish to Bake Pie
When you bake a pie, you may want to use a glass Pyrex dish so you can see underneath the pie. Another tip is to place the pie dish on a foil covered baking pan in the oven. This way if you have a fruit pie and juices start to drip as it bakes, you won’t have to worry about cleanup. Also, pie crust needs to be baked long enough!!! This is really important! We have seen so many pies at pie competitions that were under cooked. Allow the all butter pie crust dough to turn a nice golden brown. We use a pie ring once the pie has baked about 15-20 minutes and the edge has just started to turn golden. You can also create a ring out of foil to shield the edge, but if you bake pies often, a pie ring shield is so much easier.
Is shortening required for a great pie dough?
You may have heard people say that shortening is required to make the pie more flaky. That is a myth. I have seen many all-butter crust pies come out amazingly flaky and even win best in show at pie competitions. This all-butter recipe made in the food processor creates amazing layers of flakiness for your pie. I’ve even heard people say that shortening makes the pie taste better. And I will tell you that when you’ve baked and tried many pies, you can tell right away which ones have shortening. You can feel the gritty texture of shortening on the roof of you mouth and it has a distinct taste. I personally don’t like the texture or the taste. After having all-butter, I will never use shortening in a pie crust. I encourage you to try both so you can see what you prefer.
The pie dough recipe I’m sharing with you is super simple to make. It produces more than enough dough for two 9″ round pie plates or for a top and bottom crust pie. It’s a good idea to let the dough chill for 2 hours in the refrigerator before rolling it out. This will just make it easier on you as it won’t break apart so easily. This pie dough works well for fruit pies, nut pies, savory pies, and pretty much anything else you can dream up!
Here are the step by step instructions for making the pie dough in the food processor and the amazing all-butter recipe:
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 1 hour |
| Passive Time | 2 hours |
| Servings |
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- 2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour We use Trader Joe's, but any All-Purpose Flour works
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 20 Tbsp Cold Kerrygold Salted Butter We use Salted but you can use unsalted.
- 6 Tbsp Ice cold water
- 1 Egg
Ingredients
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- Place butter in the freezer for half hour before.
- In a food processor, combine 2/3 of the flour, the salt and the sugar. Pulse the dry ingredients 5-6 times.
- Chop the butter into 1/2 inch squares and spread the chunks evenly over the flour mixture in the food processor.
- Place the top on the processor and pulse to start incorporating the butter. You may have heard to stop when the butter is pea-sized, but in this case keep pulsing until you see the entire mixture come together. You should start to see it form into a dough.
- Take the lid off and spread the mixture out evenly in the processor. Add the rest of the flour on top, put the lid on and pulse about 5-6 short pulses. The dough may break up into really large clumps with lots of flour surrounding it. This is what you want!
- Transfer the dough into a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of the ice cold water and turn dough over 2-3 times (don't overmix, just push down and turn). Add the last three tablespoons of water and turn again forming it into a messy ball. This dough will be very wet, but that's okay!
- Flour a work surface generously. Turn the ball of dough out onto the flour and use a spatula or scraper to cut the dough ball in half.
- Wrap each half in plastic wrap.
- Push down on the wrapped dough to flatten it out into a 4-5 inch disc. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. They can be stored up to a maximum of 3 days.
- To ready the dough for the pie plate, take one ball of dough out of the fridge and dust a work surface with lots of flour. Flour the top of the dough disc. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a circle. Use a metal spatula to scrape under the dough if it starts to stick and keep adding flour under the work surface . Continue rolling and turning the dough until you reach the desire shape. If working with a 9 inch pie plate, try to roll the dough to about 13-14 inch wide.
- Roll the dough up onto the rolling pin, position it near the edge of the pie plate and then unroll the dough over the pie plate.
- Push the dough into the edges of the pie plate. Don't worry if the dough breaks apart in places, you can easily fix it by pressing it together with your fingers. Also, you can break off overhang pieces and use those pieces to fill in any holes or gaps.
- If you like a thick crust around the edge or plan on decorating the edge, use the overhang pieces to add along the edge. Just tuck the edge under.
- You can now fill this crust and bake (Single crusted pies are generally, custard, nut or cream). See recipes for filling the dough.
- For a double crusted pie, such as a fruit or pot pie, roll out the dough and lay it on top. Gather the crust and tuck it underneath the edge. Then flute the edge. (Or you can create a lattice design instead, see our Lattice Apple Pie Recipe for the Lattice Instructions).
- If this is a single crusted pie, hold the thumb and forefinger of one hand against the outside of the dough and press into these fingers with the forefinger of the other hand to pinch the dough, fluting the edge of the pie crust.
- Finally, create an egg wash. Scramble one egg with about 2 tablespoons of water. Brush on the egg wash. Sprinkle sugar on top. Cut vent holes in the top, or use cut outs to create designs.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for an hour (checking every 15 minutes). You may need to use a metal pie ring or form a ring out of foil and place it around the pie edge after the first 15-20 minutes of baking. Continue baking for an hour, sometimes up to an hour and 10 minutes. Most people take the pie out way too early, resulting in soggy crust. Wait, be patient and let the top of the crust turn a nice golden brown. If you use a clear Pyrex dish, you can even check to make sure the bottom browns up just a bit.
When do you add the egg to mixture?
You don’t add the egg to the actual dough recipe. You use the egg with a little water to make the eggwash. This gets “washed” onto the formed dough before it goes into the oven. The eggwash creates a shine on the dough.