The Perfect Pie Dough
No pie is a pie without a crust and a pie crust can make or break a pie. Of all the kinds of pie crust, the most classic, go-to pie crust has to be the classic flaky all-butter pie crust. A good pie crust can feel like a bit of magic, flaky, buttery, tender, and just sturdy enough to hold everything together. And even though it’s flaky, crispy, and buttery, what makes the “perfect” crust depends on who you ask. Everyone has their own idea of just how flaky or buttery a pie crust should be. Achieving a great pie crust relies as much on technique as it does on the recipe.
In this guide, I’ll share everything I’ve picked up about pie dough over the years, from the history and science behind it to step-by-step methods that make the process less stressful (and a lot more fun).
If you just want the recipe, you can head straight to the recipe card. But if you’re curious about why certain steps matter, or if you’d like a little extra confidence before rolling out your dough, stick around. Together, we’ll break down the process so that by the end, you’ll feel ready to mix your perfect batch of pie dough!
Part 2 of this series covers forming pie crusts, and part III discusses baking them. If you’re looking for techniques for double-crusted pies, you’ll find that in part IV. Other types of crust can be found here.
Table of Contents
The History of Pie Crust
The word pie (or pye) has been around since the Middle Ages, but the idea of encasing food in dough goes back much further. In Ancient Egypt, honey-based fillings were baked inside of crusts. The first written recipe is credited to the Romans. A great writeup in Epicurious by Sam Worley traces that recipe back to Cato De Agricultura 76 published in 160 BC. (Fun fact, that recipe was called “placenta” which, while not-so-appetizing in English, means “flat cake” in Latin). The dish was a cheesecake-like pie with a honey and sheeps’ milk filling in a rye crust.
The pies of the Middle Ages were generally meat pies and were … interesting. Some recipes even instructed bakers to place entire birds inside the pie, with the legs sticking out to serve as “handles”. (To be fair, this was a millennia before oven mitts). (Extra extra fun fact: the invention of oven mitts are credited to one Earl Mitt of Texas in the 1870s). The crust itself wasn’t called a “crust” at all, but a coffin (or coffyn), and it wasn’t meant to be eaten. The pie dough was cooked ahead of time, then used more as a container than a treat.
Fruit pies became popular later, when cherry pie became the favorite of Queen Elizabeth the I in the late 1600s. But even then, most recipes still relied on pre-cooked doughs. The first reference I found to a cold, uncooked crust appears in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy published in 1747. From there, recipes gradually began to resemble the tender, flaky pie crusts we enjoy today.
The Science of Pie Crust
Gluten in Pie Dough: A Love-Hate Relationship
Gluten is the enemy of flakiness. To get that beautifully delicate, flaky, and slightly crumbly pie crust, you want to form as little gluten as possible. But at the same time, you need some gluten so the pie dough holds together when you roll it out and shape it. The trick is to have enough gluten for structure, but not so much that the crust starts becoming tough.
Gluten forms when gliadin and glutenin proteins in flour mix with water, creating a three-dimensional matrix. Serious Eats has a great write-up on the science behind gluten in baking.
For pie dough, all-purpose flour usually works best. Cake flour can be too soft, and bread flour is too strong, so all-purpose hits the balance. There’s enough gluten for structure, but not so much that it toughens the crust.
Another way to limit gluten formation while still allowing the dough to bind together is to substitute some alcohol for the water. Alcohol doesn’t form gluten like water does, so it helps keep the crust tender. Again, because we need some gluten formation, we still need some water. In my recipe, I use slightly more water than vodka (about a 9:7 ratio of water to vodka).
Key Takeaways
- Flour + Water = Gluten
- Use all-purpose flour
- Less gluten = flakier crust
- Replacing some water with alcohol reduces gluten formation
Temperature: Keep your pie cold!
The colder you keep your pie dough at all times until the second it goes into the oven, the better results you will have! There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, the chunks of butter need to stay nice and solid to create maximum flakiness. As the dough bakes, the water in the butter turns to steam, leaving pockets of air that give you that delicate, layered texture. If the butter melts too soon, you lose some of that magic.
Second, cold pie dough is just easier to work with. Rolling it out, moving it around, and shaping it all becomes much easier when your dough isn’t melting and sticking all over your hands, rolling pin, and countertop. And since “working” the dough (mixing, kneading, folding, and stretching) develops gluten, being able to handle your pie dough quickly and efficiently actually helps keep the crust tender.
Key Takeaways
- Colder dough is easier to work with!
- Cold butter = Flaky crust
The Maillard Reaction
The Maillard reaction is what gives so many cooked foods that rich, delicious, toasty flavor we love. It happens when proteins are exposed to heat, causing food to brown. Think about how bread smells so good when it’s baked, or how roasted coffee beans are so aromatic, or how a perfectly seared steak tastes amazing – this is all thanks to the Maillard reaction.
For pie crust, the Maillard reaction is what gives pies their beautiful color and also adds depth of flavor. Baking your pie until the crust reaches a deep, golden brown will make it taste even better! Don’t be afraid to keep your pies in the oven for a long time. Most pies, especially double-crusted pies, can bake for quite a long time before they start to burn.
Key Takeaways
- A nice, browned crust adds extra delicious flavor!
- The Maillard reaction makes baked goods taste more complex and delicious
The Ingredients of Pie Crust
All pastry crust pie dough recipes rely on three main components: fat, flour, and liquid. Most pie dough recipes also add two accessory components: salt and sugar. If you want to get creative, you can add small amounts of things like zest or spices, but the basic combination of fat, flour, and liquid can get you to the perfect flaky pie dough.
The Fat
Historically, lard was the go-to fat for pie dough. Today, butter is the most common choice, and my personal favorite for flavor. An all-butter pie crust is my absolute favorite pie crust. Shortening is also an option, but butter produces a delicious flavor that shortening just can’t match. The rich, nutty flavor of a full-butter crust comes from the browning of the milk proteins in butter.
Lard is actually great in pie dough. It has great flavor and offers a wide temperature range you can work with before it melts. But high quality lard can be expensive and hard to find compared to butter.
For a vegan pie, coconut oil or vegan butter can be substituted. These have a narrower temperature range to work within, so working quickly is key.
Professional pastry chefs usually work with a near 1:1 ratio of butter and flour. I find that a true 1:1 ratio, while delicious, is a bit more finicky when it comes to holding its shape while baking. I use a tiny bit more flour than butter, using a 0.93:1 ratio.
Note that some specialized or flavored crusts sometimes substitute in other fats such as cheeses, nut butters, etc. Peanut butter pie crust is delicious!
The Flour
The next component in our three main components of pie crust is the flour. There is just as much flour in pie dough as butter. (Or in the case of my recipe, a tiny bit more). To create a nice, tender, flaky pie crust, we can’t form too much gluten. A high gluten crust leads to a tough crust. All-purpose flour works great here. Just don’t use the bread flour you’ve got hanging out in a corner for your sourdough baking. Cake and pastry flour will make an exceptionally tender crust, but with that tenderness also comes a need to be more delicate when shaping. I prefer working with all-purpose flour.
Along with flour, most pie crusts have a bit of salt and sometimes a bit of sugar as well. Sugar adds a subtle sweetness and helps with slight caramelization, though it’s easy to skip for savory pies. Along with sugar and salt, you can also add spices or citrus zest to the flour for flavor variations.
The Liquid
Even if you mixed them endlessly, flour and butter alone will never come together as a dough – they need a liquid to bind them. The most obvious liquid is water. And, indeed, water is the principal liquid in almost all pie dough recipes. However, as described in the science section, water when mixed together with flour forms gluten. With pie dough, we try to minimize gluten. One method to reduce gluten formation is to substitute other liquids that aren’t water into the recipe.
Some recipes call for vinegar or lemon juice in the pie dough. This is based on a myth that acid breaks down gluten in the dough leading to a flakier crust. However, the amount of acid needed to bring about any significant breakdown would be quite a lot and you’d taste the lemon juice or vinegar. In reality, a very small amount of acid actually increases gluten formation.
Replacing some water with alcohol (like vodka) limits gluten formation while still allowing the dough to bind. In my recipe, I use slightly more water than vodka—enough gluten for structure, but still tender and flaky.
Occasionally, liquids are varied for flavored crusts—different alcohols, fruit juices, and so on—but the basic water-alcohol mix works beautifully for a classic pie crust.
All-Butter Pie Crust Recipe
This recipe was developed in grams and I measure out my ingredients using a food scale. If you don’t have a food scale, I have approximated the weights into volume measurements as well.
How to Make Pie Dough: Step-by-Step Instructions
I’ve mixed literally thousands of batches of pie dough in my career. During one holiday season, I once started at 6 a.m. and churned out over 30 batches by the end of my shift. If there’s anything I’ve learned in that time, it’s that pie dough is as much an art as a science. (A hard pill for me to swallow considering I was a scientist before I became a baker). Even after those thousands of batches, I’m still learning and tweaking my methods.
Every pie dough recipe will behave a little differently. This doesn’t mean that your pie dough won’t come out great by following these directions on the first try! It just means that it might take a few tries to make it your recipe that’s perfect for you every time. The way you mix your pie dough (how much you cut the butter in, how much liquid you add, how much gluten your form, etc) will differ slightly from the way I mix my pie dough, but that’s ok. That’s what I love about pie dough: it’s your recipe even when the ingredients are exactly the same as someone else’s.
Before we begin mixing, there are a few different tools we can use to mix pie dough:
- By hand: The simplest but most physically demanding method. You just need a bowl and a pastry cutter.
- Stand mixer with a paddle attachment: My preferred method
- Food processor: Some people prefer this method for speed and efficiency.
Step 1: Prepare Your Ingredients
Cut your butter:
Temperature matters more than anything when making pie dough. Keep everything cold to protect the butter chunks, which create flakiness. If your butter melts while you’re working with it, you’re compromising some of your flakiness. I like to measure everything before I start mixing, and then keep it cold.
Begin by cubing your butter. If you’re using standard butter “sticks” that you buy retail at the grocery store, I like to cut it in half lengthwise once, rotate both halves 90 degrees, and then cut in half lengthwise again.
After you’ve quartered your stick of butter, I begin cutting small squares at about every tablespoon mark on the butter. You should end up with about 32 squares per stick of butter.
Return the butter back to the refrigerator or freezer so it stays cold and hard.
Measure out your liquids:
Measure the water and vodka into the same container and put it in the refrigerator or freezer to keep cold.
Step 2: Cut the butter into the dry ingredients
In your mixing bowl (or stand mixer bowl, or food processor), combine the flour, salt, sugar, and cubed butter.
Food Processor
Stand Mixer
By Hand
If you’re using a stand mixer, on low speed, mix until the butter chunks are about the size of green peas and the texture of the flour changes from flour to something that appears a bit like cornmeal (see photo).
If you’re using a food processor, use short pulses, and if you’re using the pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dries by hand until you have similar results as above.
Step 3: Incorporate the liquid
The liquid in a pie dough is not an exact measure but a suggestion. Pie dough rarely takes the same amount of liquid every time. The exact amount depends on environmental factors in your kitchen. The trick when adding liquid to pie dough is speed: not so fast you overwhelm the dough and it doesn’t incorporate evenly, and not so slow the dough comes together and becomes hydrophobic before it’s been hydrated enough. The key is to add it slowly and consistently, stopping as soon as the dough comes together and feels slightly tacky—but not wet, sticky, or dry.
With a stand mixer:
With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour about half of the liquid into the flour and butter. As soon as you start to see some dough begin to come together on the paddle, stop your mixer. Using your hands or a spatula, gently toss everything together to evenly mix the fully-dry areas and the dough that has started to come together. On low speed again, continue adding liquid until you get to the sweet spot.
The dough shouldn’t come together fully while you’re adding the liquid. But if you stop the mixer after every teaspoon or so, and pinch some dough together, it should hold together and be slightly tacky. Once you get to that point, don’t add any more liquid and turn the mixer on low speed until the dough comes together in a few big chunks (about 15 seconds). (see photo)
With a food processor:
To incorporate the liquid, slowly stream the water and vodka mixture into the food processor while pulsing the mixture. After you’ve added about half the liquid, stop every teaspoon or so to open the lid and pinch some dough together and see if it stays together and it’s slightly tacky. Once it reaches that point, pulse a few more times until the dough comes together.
By hand:
Add the liquid in small increments and gently knead it into the dough by hand until the dough begins to hold together and is slightly tacky.
Step 4: Allow the dough to rest for at least 1 hour
Once the dough is formed, let it rest for at least an hour. Press it into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge. This allows the gluten to relax, making the dough easier to roll out and reducing shrinkage during baking. If you’re planning ahead, pie dough can be made a day or more in advance and kept in the fridge or freezer until needed.
FAQ and Troubleshooting Pie Dough:
How far in advance can I make pie dough?
A disc of pie dough wrapped in saran wrap can easily keep for 5-7 days in your refrigerator. Eventually, it will begin to take on a greyish tint as the dough oxidizes. Pie dough can be frozen nearly indefinitely as long as you avoid freezer burn.
Do I need to use unsalted butter for my pie dough?
Salted butter will work just fine! Just omit the additional salt in the recipe. Additionally, you can substitute lard, coconut oil, shortening, etc. Just be aware the dough might behave slightly differently.
Do I need to use alcohol in my pie dough?
Nope! Only using water will work just fine for pie dough.
My dough is too wet, what do I do?
If your pie dough is just a little too wet, you can try to use extra flour while rolling out your pie crust.
All-Butter Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups Unsalted Butter, cold (282g)
- 2½ Cups All-Purpose Flour (302g)
- 1 tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 42 mL Vodka, cold (3 tbsp)
- 56 mL Water, cold (¼ cup)
Instructions
Prepare your ingredients
- Cube your butter into 1/2" pieces and return it to the fridge.
- Combine the vodka and water and return it to the fridge.
Mix the pie dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine the all-purpose flour, salt, and granulated sugar, and chilled, cubed butter.
- Mix on low speed until the flour changes texture resembling coarse cornmeal.
- With the mixer on low, slowly pour in about half of the chilled vodka and water mixture.
- Once the dough begins coming together on the paddle, stop the mixer, and toss all of the ingredients together quickly by hand.
- With the mixer on low, continue adding the remaining liquid in small increments with the mixer on low speed. Stop frequently to pinch the dough. When enough liquid has been added, it should hold together and feel slightly tacky, but not sticky or wet.
- Mix on low for a few more seconds until the dough comes together, forming large clumps.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and shape into a flat disc about 1-2" thick.
- Wrap in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before rolling or shaping.
Form your pie crusts (See recipe notes)
- Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator.
- Lightly flour your work surface and both sides of the dough.
- Roll the dough into two large circles, about 2-3mm thick.
- Transfer the rolled dough to a flat surface (such as a baking sheet) and let it rest in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
- Prepare your pie tins, and form your pie crusts.
- Freeze the formed pie crusts for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Blind bake (if necessary - see recipe notes).
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ (175℃).
- Line your frozen pie shell with parchment paper and fill with your preferred weights.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes for a light pre-bake, 40-45 minutes for a dark pre-bake, and about 1 hour for a fully baked crust.
- Remove from the oven and let the crust cool slightly before removing the parchment and weights. Fill as directed in your pie recipe.
