I was complaining to my Mother in Law a few weeks ago about this store bought pie crust that I bought that was just TERRIBLE. It tasted fine, but fell apart as I tried to use it, pretty much shrank into nothingness when I cooked it and just kind of killed the quiche I was making. And you’re talking to someone who could give a flying LEAP about how her pie crust edges look. Seriously. I had used the other, big name pie crust before, but this one has been in the specific store I was at, so I thought, what the hell.
It went less than well obviously.
She looked at me kind of funny, I guess knowing how much I love to cook, and simply said. “Oh wow, I normally make my own pie crust.”
But it’s so hard, I thought. So much easier to just unroll the crust from the store and use it. Theirs is fine. A little expensive but fine, right?
Right?
Yeah. These were all terrible excuses, seriously. Because I made my first pie crust the other day, to make Shepherd’s Pie Turnovers. And found out that making pie crust was easy. Like SO easy. And that pie crust I made was probably the most delicious, buttery, decadent perfect pie crust I’d ever had.
People, I have seen the light!
It’s easy, and idiot proof, and cheap! It only takes four ingredients and seriously creates the most amazing pie crust you’d ever had. I don’t even need the dang pie filling, just the yummy buttery crust and I’m good. Maybe dipped in a little chocolate or something… mmmm chocolate.
But I digress.
You really need to try to make this for your pies at least once. I envision making this today to fill with some spiced, cinnamon-y apples for an amazing apple pie or rustic galette (see above). Or using it again to make turnovers, both sweet and savory. Or in a few weeks for my delicious Thanksgiving pecan pie. The possibilities are endless and as long as I’m craving sweets? I will take advantage of every.single.one of them.
The Perfect Pie Crust
This makes enough for one crust (either the top or the bottom). So if you want to do a pie that has both, make sure to double the recipe.
Ingredients
1.5 Cups of All Purpose Flour
3/4 C CUBED SALTED Butter (1.5 sticks) – This must be VERY VERY cold and cut up into cubes. I find that cubing it and then sticking it in the freezer for a few minutes helps. AND MUST BE SALTED! I used unsalted unknowingly this Thanksgiving and it RUINED my pie crust. Blergh.
1/2 Tsp Salt
4-6 TB Ice Water
Directions
Take the bowl that you are going to be mixing your dough in and place it in the freezer or fridge for about 10 minutes before you start to mix. This will ensure that the butter doesn’t melt while you’re mixing it.
Place your flour and salt into the chilled bowl. Add in the 3/4 C of butter cubes and using a pastry cutter, cut it until the butter is pea sized. This can also be done easily in the food processor if you have one. I’m just lazy and hate cleaning my Cuisinart.
Add in 4-6 TB of water until the dough starts to form up. The most important thing here is not to overwork the dough. Literally get it to just come together (it may even still be crumbly) and turn it out onto a piece of saran wrap. Wrap it up in the plastic wrap and use that to get the dough to come together just a little bit more, until it forms a flat disk. You want to see chunks of butter running through it still because that’s what is going to make it SUPER flaky and delicious. 
Throw that baby into the fridge and let it sit for about 15-30 minutes. I personally let it go for about a day if I can. If you have doubled the recipe, make sure to make two disks, that way you can roll out the bottom crust while the top crust stays cool in the fridge until it’s ready to use. Keeping it cool is the most important part of the whole process because it means that your crust is going to be SUPER flaky and buttery. See the butter picture above. Mmmmm, butter.
That’s it. Once it’s rolled out, you can make cooked pies, chilled pies (just remember to blind bake it), turnovers, whatever.
And it is SO DAMN GOOD.
Enjoy!
