Pie Crust – Easy as Pie
Simple to Make Yourself
I love a homemade pie crust. I have had many a family member give me their recipe but this has been the quickest and tastiest that I have used through the years. Any time of the year there is a pie that reminds us of the season. So grab the flour, butter, salt & cold water and you will have a homemade pie crust for your favorite pie.
Pie Making & Family Traditions
We make a lot of our family pie recipes at Thanksgiving & Christmas. Christmas is the time of year the family gathers for many different holiday traditions. Our family has always been active in our Church Christmas Pageant and Vespers music program. For both of these Christmas traditions, families provide food for a potluck or special coffee hour. Many years in the past the Women’s Guild would bring out the silver tea servers. Christmas cookies, punch, finger sandwiches, and Christmas pies were served on long tables. I always looked forward to these services and all the delicious homemade recipes.
Simple Steps To The Perfect Pie Crust
When making a homemade pie crust from scratch, make sure that the butter is cold, cold cold. If I am baking in the summer I put the butter in the freezer for 10 minutes to make sure it does not soften when it is on the counter. I use the same pastry cutter that my mom used and I learned to make pies with it. In a lot of recipes, you will find cuts in butter in a food processor. My understanding is that you just pulse the food processor a few times to get the butter cut in. I want to try this next.
Add the salt to the flour and start cutting in the butter, until the mixture is small and crumbly.
After the butter is cut in, you need to add the ice water to the flour, salt, and butter, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture forms a ball of dough. Do not over mix and do not worry if the butter is in little clumps. Flour your work surface lightly with flour, remember to flour the rolling pin but not too much. Divide the dough in half and start gently rolling out the dough into a circle.
One of the quickest and safest ways to transfer the rolled pie crust to the pie pan is to gently roll it onto the rolling pin and list onto the pie plate. (if you see a trend you are right everything about pie crust involves, gentle and slow) Just take your time and do not overwork any step.
At most popular holidays I like to bake pies, Pumpkin Pie and Apple Pie being the favorite in our home for years. Now as the children are adults Apple Pie is the pie that disappears first.
Here is the link to my post on American Homemade Apple Pie.
Your family may also like Fresh Homemade Cherry Pie.
And you do not want to have a June go by without making Fresh Strawberry Pie! Yum!
If you need the recipe for a Traditional Pumpkin Pie you will find it here.
The ingredients are simple and basic and easy to have on hand. With a good rolling pin you love and a favorite pie pan you can make any pie a snap. I did stray to store bought crust for a few years, but now we try to have all of our food be simple and clean.
I love my basic Fire King Deep Pie Baking Dish was my mother’s in the 50″s, you can still use this same traditional pan
Supplies Needed:
Quick Tips:
- Before you start your pie crust, fill a measuring cup with ice water.
- And before you start your pie crust put the butter in the freezer for 10 minutes to get it really cold.
- When you are making a pie, place the bottom crust in the pie pan and put it in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes while you are preparing your filling. This helps keep the crust from getting soggy.
- If you are making an Apple Pie, fill a large bowl with cold water and 1/4 cup of lemon juice to keep the apples from turning brown. Before adding to the pie crust, rinse the lemon juice off of the apple slices.
- Line a cookie sheet with foil and put your pie that is in the pan on the tray before putting it in the oven to keep any dripping off the stove and onto the foil that you can dispose of.
Homemade is the best, and a fun way to spend time with and teach your children basic cooking skills.
You May Also Be Interested In – 10 Easy Pie Recipes for the Holiday Plus Pie Homemade Crust Recipe
PrintEasy as Pie ~ Pie Crust
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 3/4 cup Butter or Shortening
- 7 to 8 tablespoons of Ice Cold Water (update: it is very hot today and my pie crust today used 12 tablespoons, start with 7 to 8 and add untill the dough comes together.)
Instructions
- Put ice and water in a bowl to use later
- Whisk Flour and Salt in a large bowl
- Cut in the Butter or Shortening with a fork or a Pastry Cutter
- When flour has small pieces of butter or shortening Start adding cold water a TLB at a time until it forms a soft ball of dough.
- On your clean counter top or large cutting board, flour and put the dough on to roll.
- Divide the dough in half and roll out two round pie crusts.
Notes
- You can also make this and keep it in the refrigerator for 3 days or freeze up to a month.
Keywords: best easy pie crust
I’ve jarred my own apple pie filling and want to try your crust recipe. My apple pie filling is partially cooked already. How long would I bake this and at what temperature? If you don’t mind me asking.
I would use the same temperature and watch the time to see when the crust is brown. You are just baking the crust and heating up the filling I would check it at 20 minutes and see if it looks done, if not then do another 10 minutes. I have not made an apple pie with filling. let me know how it works out.
Thank you…I will
Oh I hope this crust works for me, I haven’t made them for yrs because the last one turned out like a sun hat but you could wear it in the winter time and not break , too big to be to be a hockey puck so I gave up so I’m crossing my fingers and if I can’t do this Ono I’m really giving up holy moly cause it sounds easy, but then I could screw up Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and the kids would think I’m from another planet for petes sake!!! Haha!!! Thank You I’m gonna try this!!!
Even after years mine sometimes are not just right. It takes practice and not working the dough too much, just get it combined with as little handling it and start rolling it out.
Homemade pie crust really is so much better than the ready made stuff. I am going to try yours out! Thanks for sharing 🙂 #happynowlinkup
I am a TERRIBLE baker, so I need all the tips and tutorials I can get if I ever want to make my own pies instead of just buying them! #MerryMonday
Pie crust is one of those things I’ve never made on my own before, mostly because I’m so afraid I’ll mess it up. Looks like I’m going to have to give it a try soon. Thanks so much for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!
They are some work but just have to remember not to overwork it, the less you touch it the better.
I have trouble getting consistent results from my homemade pie crust recipe. one time it’s great, the other its hard and tasteless. Printing yours to give it a try! thanks
That sounds great!! I always want to make my own, but end up buying them at the store to save time. However, that’s not saving money and who knows what is in it. :/ Definitely pinning this to try! Thank you for sharing with us at the #HomeMattersParty
Thank you so much for your kind words. I did go back to making my own for the cost saving. The ones at the store have gotten so expensive.
Susan