Learn how to make a pie crust the way Grandma did. Grandma’s Pie Crust is buttery, flaky, and takes just a few minutes to make. It’s our long-time family favorite!
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I have always loved homemade pie crust. I grew up with homemade rather than store-bought crusts, so taking the extra time to make homemade pie dough is normal to me. It’s not that I’m above using store-bought crusts. I’ve used them in the past and will use them again in the future. Everyone needs a shortcut now and then. But there’s nothing like a homemade pie with flaky pie crust that almost melts in your mouth. To me, it’s the best part of the pie.
Today I’m sharing with you Matt’s grandma’s pie crust recipe. It’s been the only pie crust recipe I’ve used since I got married. It was in a family cookbook given to me at our wedding shower. The little cookbook falls open to this recipe automatically, the pages are worn and have stains from the many years of love it has endured. Don’t you love it when a favorite recipe card looks like that?
So what makes Grandma’s recipe so good? To be honest, I’m not sure. It’s probably the fact that it is Grandma’s. But I’m here today to share with you our hints for making what we think is the best pie crust ever.
Our recipe calls for 6 simple ingredients.
1. 3 cups Pastry flour. What kind of flour should you use for pie dough? Now you can use all-purpose flour if you’d like. We did for years. But when we switched to pastry flour, we started getting comments on how good our pie crust was. Pastry flour has low protein content which means it doesn’t generate as much gluten as white flour. This means you end up with tender crust. Perfect for pie. Here’s a great article on the different types of flours if you’re interested in reading up on them. A pastry flour crust is a little more of a fragile crust so you have to be careful that it doesn’t tear when you are moving it from the floured surface to the pie pan. If you choose to use all-purpose flour, make sure not to overmix the batter since this develops more gluten and makes the dough tougher.
2. 1 teaspoon salt
3& 4. 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter. I believe butter vs shortening in pie dough is qutie the debate. As much as I like using real butter, I’ve found that I like a combination of butter and shortening in my pie crust. Shortening produces a tender, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth crust, but butter produces an awesome flavor. I solve the problem by using some of both. And there’s one other thing. The butter and shortening should be cold. Keeping your fats cold produces a flakier crust. Those fats melt during baking and make flaky layers. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
5. 1/2 cup ice water. Use cold water to help keep those fats cold.
6. 1 tablespoon vinegar. Adding vinegar helps to tenderize the crust and also inhibits gluten development, keeping your dough soft. You need just a bit of this and don’t worry…you won’t taste it once the pie is baked.
We use a pastry cutter to cut the cold butter and shortening into the flour. This is one of our newest kitchen tools that we got for making scones. Don’t have one? You can get one here
Another kitchen tool we use when making pie crust is our pastry mat. We happened to find an awesome deal on a new pastry mat at a garage sale this summer, but it is very similar to the one found here
Pie crust is the basis for so many of my favorite recipes. It doesn’t matter if the pie is filled with pumpkin, apple or even potato chips (yes, you need to check that one out). But you know what? We mostly make this pie dough for things other than pie. We’ll be sharing some with you soon. Here’s one, though….I love using a cookie cutter to make pie crust cookies to dip in pudding, or a whipped cream fruit salad. So much better than using a spoon!
Do you normally use store-bought pie crust or are you for homemade all the way? What’s your favorite thing to make from pie dough?
Learn how to make a pie crust the way Grandma did. Grandma's Pie Crust is buttery, flaky, and takes minutes to make. It's our long-time family favorite!
- 3 cups pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup cold butter
- 1/2 cup ice cold water
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
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Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the shortening and the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix the water and vinegar together in a cup. Add the mixture to the crumbs. Mix together just until the dough is combined and handles well.
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Sprinkle flour on the counter before rolling out the dough. Split the dough into two chunks.
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Roll out one piece on a floured surface. Roll the dough about 1/2 an inch larger than your pie pan.
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Lay the crust in the pie pan and press down lightly on the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
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If you are making just a bottom crust, turn the edge under and use thumbs "flute" the edges of the dough.
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If you are making a double crusted pie, fill the pie, roll out the other half of the dough and lay it over top the filling. Fold the top dough under the bottom dough and use your fingers to seal it together.
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Bake according to your pie recipe.
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This recipes makes enough for a double crusted pie.
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