Basic Pie Crust

While I have had a basic pie crust recipe on every incarnation of this site, this actually is not the same one I originally posted. I’m going to tell you a little secret – I don’t *like* (most) pie crust – I much prefer the filling. As a result, nearly every pie I make is deep dish to increase the filling to crust ratio. Most pie crust recipes are geared toward a standard depth pie plate so I always had to either roll it a bit too thin or remember to adjust the recipe for just a touch more dough. This recipe is my answer to that issue.

I also recommend you take a look at the notes section of this recipe. One of the things that I typically find lacking in pie crust is flavor – in creating this recipe I found ways of incorporating all kinds of extra flavor to complement the fillings of my family’s favorite pies.

Pie Crust

This is a basic pie crust recipe. It yields crust for one 9"-10" deep dish single crust pie.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: crust, pie

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Chilling time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 8

Equipment

• Food processor
• Bowl
• Fork
• Silpat
• Bench scraper

Ingredients

• 9 ounce flour all-purpose
• 1 ½ tablespoon sugar granulated
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 ounce shortening cubed, very cold (optional: butter flavored)
• 4 ounce butter cubed, very cold
• 2.83 ounce water ice cold
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

• Pulse all dry ingredients in a food processor until well combined.
• Add shortening, pulse until combined.
• Add butter, pulse until the largest pieces of butter are about the size of large peas.
• Transfer to a separate bowl, add the liquid ingredients and stir quickly and gently with a fork to form a shaggy dough
• Dump out on a silpat and bring together with a bench scraper.
• Using the heals of your hands smear the dough away 1/3 at a time, using the bench scraper to fold the dough back on top of itself (the butter should remain visible in the dough, not getting fully incorporated).
• Form the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic and chill for at least a couple hours before using (1-2 days would be better)

Notes

• For a standard depth pie, you could adjust the flour to 6 ounces, the total fat to 4 ounces and the water to 2 ounce. Or (and this is my preference) you can use the recipe as is and turn the left over dough into pie crust chips
  • cut into fun shapes, brush with egg wash and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar
  • bake at 375° until golden brown (~12-15 minutes or so depending on the thickness of the dough and the size of the shapes)
• For variations in flavor, try replacing 1/5-1/4 of the flour with finely ground cookies (such as ginger snaps or chocolate wafers), add up to a teaspoon of spices (such as cinnamon, ginger or pumpkin pie spice), and/or replace some or all of the water with an alternative liquid (such as apple juice), also ice cold. The following are the variations I use for some of our favorite pies
  • Apple Pie
    • Swap 2 oz of flour for finely ground spice cookies (ginger snaps, ginger thins, Biscoff, etc.)
    • Add 1 tsp cinnamon
    • Swap the water for apple cider or juice (ice cold)
  • Pumpkin Pie
    • Swap 2 oz of flour for finely ground spice cookies (ginger snaps, ginger thins, Biscoff, etc.)
    • Add 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
    • Swap the water for pumpkin juice (ice cold)
  • Tollhouse Brownie Pecan Pie
    • Swap 1.5 oz of flour for finely ground chocolate cookies (chocolate wafers, Oreos without cream, etc)
    • Swap 1 oz of flour for finely ground toasted pecans
    • Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon