how to make all-butter pie dough from scratch

This recipe is a part of "Hello Baking- Baking for beginner" series 🙂 where you can find some easy, eggless, basic recipes like sponge cakes, cupcakes, frostings, and more!

I love making pies from scratch and here I am sharing a foolproof method to make a pie dough for flaky, crusty pie crust🥧.

I love simple, traditional recipes and you will be surprised to know that making pie crust at home actually requires only 5 ingredients and 10 minutes(not counting the chilling time ;)).

What is pie?

Pie is a baked dish that is made of pastry dough with various sweet and savory fillings. Pie has a long history 🙂 The first mention of the pie recipe is mentioned somewhere before 2000 BC.

Is butter important to make pie crust?

Butter has the best flavor. A butter pie crust forms light, lofty, flaky layers while it bakes. The flakiness comes partially from the water content of butter, which evaporates as the pie bakes and turns to steam, separating and puffing up the layers of dough.

Ingredients

Below are the ingredients required to make a flaky pie crust.

All-purpose flour - use good quality all-purpose flour. I am using unbleached flour here.

Butter - you can either use salted or unsalted butter to prepare a dough. If using unsalted butter, adjust the amount of salt. I am using salted butter here.

Sugar - white, granulated sugar is used here.

Salt - salt to taste.

Ice-cold water - to form a dough and to combine all ingredients together.

How to make the perfect flaky pie crust?

Step 1: Make sure the butter is cold.

To make a perfect pie crust, it all starts with cold butter. It is crucial to use cold butter to make the crust. When the crust gets baked, the cold butter melts and creates steam which "leavens" the dough, giving it flakey layers. So make sure to keep the butter as cold as possible, work with the dough as fast as you can, and use cold water for the dough.

Grate your cold butter and keep aside.

Quick tip🌟
make sure to use COLD BUTTER. Do not use butter which was at room temperature. place butter in refrigerator for atleast 4 hours before working on dough.

Step 2: Combining Ingredients.

Gather all ingredients i.e. all-purpose flour, ice-cold water, butter, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl or into a food processor. Churn into a food processor for 2 to 3 minutes or until everything is combined.

You can follow the same procedure by mixing and combining all ingredients in a mixing bowl using your hands 🙂

Step 3: Chill the dough.

After everything is combined and the dough is formed, wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate it for 2 hours before using it.

once the dough is cool enough, use it as required.

Storage

• This dough can stay fresh for a week in the refrigerator.
• You can even freeze this dough for a month. Wrap it in cling film, pack it in a freezer-friendly ziplock bag or a container, and store it.

Recipe