This is the Best Butter Pie Crust recipe, and with the right knowledge and technique, you'll see how simple it is to make. This classic flaky butter pie dough recipe works equally well with sweet fruit pies as it does with savory pies.
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When made correctly with high-quality ingredients, butter pie crust can be a work of art. Properly cooked pie crust should be so crispy it shatters when you bite it but also delicate enough to melt in your mouth.
After over a decade of dedicating my professional life to baking pies, I can accurately say that this is my best Butter Pie Crust recipe that results in a classic American-style tender and flaky pie pastry.
Many bakers, both novice and experienced, are intimidated by pie crust. After reading this article, however, you'll be armed with all the knowledge you need to make the best flaky butter pie crust, I promise.
This recipe can be made in the food processor (my first choice) or by hand with a pastry blender, and there will be tips and instructions for both.
So, let's get to making it, shall we? The article below is jam-packed full of useful information. You can jump around using the menu below, or skip to the end of the article for the full recipe.
Jump to:
- The Science Behind a Butter Pie Crust
- A Word of Encouragement
- What Pies work Best with Butter Pie Crust
- Ingredients Needed
- Two Methods to Make It
- How to Make It with a Pastry Blender
- How to Make it in the Food Processor
- Kelli's Best Tips
- Storing Butter Pie Crust
- Rolling It Out
- Baking Instructions
- Video
- More Resources
- Other Pie Crust Recipes
- Full Recipe
The Science Behind a Butter Pie Crust
At its heart, a good pie crust is a balance of three key ingredients: flour, butter, and water. This butter pie crust recipe also contains a few other ingredients that make it the best it can be.
The water interacts with the flour to form the gluten that creates the structure for the dough. You want to develop just enough gluten formation that the pastry has some strength to hold its shape but not so much that it's tough.
The butter coats the flour, helping to inhibit excess gluten formation, but it also creates pockets of steam as it melts, creating that flakiness we all love.
A Word of Encouragement
My motto is always, Practice makes progress (not perfection). Making pastry requires various skills that you will improve over time with practice. Don't be discouraged if your initial attempt doesn't yield a picture-perfect pie. I've made thousands of batches of pie dough and I'm always open to learning new tricks and improving.
But truth be told, any homemade pie dough you make is worlds away better than anything you can buy at the store, so don't be worried if you are a beginner: You're going to do great!
What Pies work Best with Butter Pie Crust
This pie is perfect for classic fruit pies or savory pies that will be served at room temperature or warm. This is a highly opinionated piece of advice, but flaky butter dough is not ideal for any pie that is to be served cold, like a cream pie. If you are looking for a pie crust that is good for a pie that is to be served cold, check out this Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Pie Crust) recipe or this Pâte Sablée (Sweet Tart Dough).
The reason I don't recommend using this pie dough for a pie meant to be served cold is that it can taste stale when served straight from the refrigerator, the same way a croissant or puff pastry might taste stale when very cold.
A properly made pastry, which is buttery and flaky, is at its best when it's at room temperature. The primary reason is the butter within the crust. Once it goes into the refrigerator, it solidifies, and the crust becomes more solid, losing that ethereal softness.
Does that mean I'm saying you can never eat an Apple Pie made in this crust straight from the refrigerator? Absolutely not! I know many people love it! But a fruit pie has a lot of juices and it transforms this crust when it is hanging in the refrigerator.
But a Coconut Cream Pie or a Banana Cream Pie doesn't transform this pastry the same way as an Apple Pie would, and I wouldn't recommend using this crust on those meant-to-be-served-cold pies!
If you are set on making this pie crust with a chilled pie, I recommend blending the butter to a finer consistency. This will result in a more mealy dough, which suits a cold set pie better.
Ingredients Needed
This all butter pie crust recipe has more than just the three essential ingredients mentioned above. This is an overview of the ingredients, as well as an explanation behind them. For the full recipe, scroll down to the end of the article.
- All Purpose Flour: Generally speaking pastry flour is the best flour for making pastry because it has a lower protein content. But most people don't keep it in their kitchen, so this recipe it calls for all-purpose flour.
- Cornstarch: The addition of cornstarch makes the flour mimic pastry flour. You can totally skip this and add in equal parts flour if you wish, but cornstarch helps make this pie dough delicate.
- Salt: This recipe was tested using Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt. If you use Morton's kosher salt or fine salt decrease by about half for volume, or use the same amount by weight.
- Unsalted butter: Make sure you use good quality butter here! I like unsalted that way you can control the amount of added salted.
- Apple cider vinegar: This helps make the dough tender by inhibiting too much gluten formation and it brings a nice subtle hint of tang to the crust that keeps it nicely balanced.
- Ice water: Water brings the whole thing together, but it should be cold to help keep the temperature of the dough as chill as possible. Honestly, when I don't have ice lying around, I'll just let the tap run for 30 seconds to get water cold and use that.
Two Methods to Make It
While pie dough can be made several ways, there are two main methods I recommend: in the food processor (my preferred) or with a pastry blender.
Food Processor:
Butter pie crust made in the food processor has the best of both worlds: it is mildly flaky, and ultra tender. And it's the simplest way to make pie dough. That is why this is my preferred method of making pie dough.
Pastry Blender:
Pie dough with a pastry blender (or by hand) will almost always be flakier than any other method. The reason is because the butter naturally stays in larger pieces. The bigger the butter chunks the flakier the dough.
The con of this method is that it is more difficult to evenly hydrate the dough, so you may need to add more water to the dough to get it to come together.
Want additional ways to make pie crust? Check out this post on How to Make Pie Dough by Hand or How to Make Pie Crust in a Stand Mixer for a more in-depth look at alternative methods to making it.
How to Make It with a Pastry Blender
Step 1: Whisk together the dry ingredients.
Step 2: Add in the butter and toss to coat it in flour.
Step 3: Cut the butter into the flour using the pastry blender.
Step 4: Use the blender as an aid to mix the crumbly mixture to ensure all butter is cut.
Step 5: Mix the water in until it's evenly hydrated.
Step 6: Gather the dough together, and hydrate any powdery spots.
How to Make it in the Food Processor
Step 1: Pulse the dry ingredients.
Step 2: Add in the cold butter.
Step 3: Pulse, roughly 5-7 times until the butter is in small pieces, about the size of a pea.
Step 2: Drizzle in the water and vinegar, and then stop. Do not process until it comes together in a ball.
Step 5: Dump the dough onto a work surface and spritz or drizzle any dry spots with water.
Step 6: Bring the dough together.
Kelli's Best Tips
- Let the dough rest. I never advise making dough the same day you plan to bake it. It's essential for the dough to hydrate properly and so the dough should rest at least overnight.
- Weigh your ingredients! An electronic kitchen scale is not a huge investment. You can get one for around $25. I can't recommend enough that if you want to get good at baking, get a scale.
- Use high quality butter and flour. Both of these ingredients can vary wildly in quality. Poor quality butter is going to have a higher water content and less fat. Lower-quality flour can vary in protein structure, and that can affect your final pie crust. In the end, I'd still choose a homemade pie crust made with cheap butter and flour over anything store-bought, but if you are looking for a really amazing pie crust buying quality ingredients will help.
- If your kitchen is hotter than 70 degrees, you'll need to move quickly! Melted butter is the enemy here. If the kitchen is hot, utilize the freezer or refrigerator during the dough-making process to ensure the butter doesn't turn soft.
- Hydrate your dough: Many bakers tend to be overly cautious with water, resulting in under-hydrated dough. Given the choice, I prefer slightly over-hydrated pie dough over under-hydrated. In fact, I often add more water than most recipes recommend to ease rolling out the dough. Make sure there are no dry spots; they won't disappear even with resting. The dough should easily hold together when squeezed, and any dry areas can be moistened with a few drops of water or my favorite tool: a kitchen-safe spray bottle of water.
Storing Butter Pie Crust
It is not recommended to make pie dough the same day it needs to be rolled out or baked! If possible, plan to make pie dough ahead of time by at least one day. Pie dough keeps really well in the refrigerator or the freezer. But first, you need to wrap it well!
Wrap the pie dough as tightly as you can, and then use a rolling pin to roll out the pie disk and flatten it out so it fills any empty space and essentially makes an airtight seal with the plastic wrap. This helps prevent it from oxidizing (or turning a muddled gray color).
You can store it in the refrigerator for 2-4 days or the freezer for up to 3 months. If you plan to store it for an extended period of time than wrap it up twice!
Rolling It Out
When you are ready to roll out your butter pie crust, remove it from the refrigerator and place it at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. You want the pie dough to warm up slightly so that it will be easy to roll out. If the pie dough is too cold it can crack when you roll it out.
Conversely, if it's too warm, it can be difficult to work with. You will know the pie dough is ready to roll out when it yields slightly when you press it with your finger.
Make sure to flour your work surface liberally to prevent your pie dough from sticking to your surface or the rolling pin. As you are rolling, periodically check to make sure it isn't stuck and spread more flour underneath the pie crust. It's useful to have a bench scraper by your side for this, just in case it does get stuck. If you have excess flour on your dough you can brush it off with a pastry brush.
If you feel your pie dough is too warm at any point, put it back in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.
Baking Instructions
Almost as important as how you prepare pie pastry is how you bake it. There is one main rule to remember when it comes to baking all butter pie dough: very cold dough should be put in a very hot oven. All butter pie pastry should be thoroughly chilled before baking, and baked at a high temperature, ideally around 425ºF.
As a general rule of thumb, it's always best to chill a pie crust either in the freezer for 10-20 minutes or in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour before you bake it. While this is an extra step, it makes all the difference in the world.
However, not all pie fillings can be baked at that high of a temperature, which means that sometimes the pie crust will need to be partially or fully blind baked. Usually, a pie recipe indicates how the pie crust should be baked, so reference those directions for pies using this flaky pie crust.
Video
More Resources
For more reading and resources, check out these recipes and tutorials:
- How to Blind Bake Pie Crust
- How to Make Pie Crust By Hand
- How to Make a Lattice Pie Crust
- How to Make (and Use) an Egg Wash
- How to Bake a Double Crust Pie
- How to Bake a Frozen Pie
- Leftover Pie Crust Cookies
Other Pie Crust Recipes
- Chocolate Pie Crust
- Flaky Pie Crust
- Pâte Brisée (Shortcrust Pastry)
- Pâte Sablée (Sweet Tart Dough)
- Cream Cheese Pie Crust
- Whole Wheat Pie Crust
- Spelt Pie Crust
- Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Pie Crust)
Full Recipe
The Best Butter Pie Crust
This is the Best Butter Pie Crust recipe, and with the right knowledge and technique, you'll see how simple it is to make. This classic flaky butter pie dough recipe works equally well with sweet fruit pies as it does with savory pies.
- Prep Time: 00:10
- Cook Time: 00:00
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 Pie Crusts
- Category: Pie Dough
Ingredients
- 2-¾ cups (330 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (14 grams) cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon (2 grams) coarse kosher salt (see note)
- 18 tablespoons (250 grams) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1" pieces
- 1 tablespoon (15 grams) apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup (120 grams) ice water, more as needed
Instructions
Using a pastry blender:
- Whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl.
- Toss in butter and coat with flour. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour. Continue until most of the butter has been worked into the flour. Some larger pieces can remain, up to the size of a marble.
- Add the vinegar to the water then drip in half throughout the dough and toss together. Drip in the other half, while gently mixing the flour and butter mixture into the water. Using your hands gently bring the dough together, squeezing it together once or twice and making sure to get the flour and butter at the bottom of the bowl incorporated. If there is enough water the dough should easily squeeze together with your hands. If needed, you can drip (or spray using a kitchen-safe spray bottle) in more water into any dry spots, just enough to bring the dough together.
- Empty the flour mixture onto a work surface and divide into two pieces, each about 12 ounces.
- Place each in a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly.
- Using a rolling pin, roll the wrapped dough out until it stretches to the corner of the plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight
In a food processor:
- Add the flour, cornstarch and salt to the bowl of a food processor.
- Pulse 2-3 times until combined.
- Add in the butter and pulse 5 times.
- Add the vinegar to the water. With the motor running, slowly pour the water into the flour. The dough should be crumbly and it should hold together when squeezed. Drip in more water and toss together if needed.
- Empty the flour mixture onto a work surface and divide it into two piles.
- Quickly form each dough pile together. If there are any dry spots, drip a bit more water on them and knead together if you have to. Each dough should weigh about 12 ounces.
- Place each in a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly.
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it stretches to the corner of the plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight
Notes
Weighing your flour is the most accurate way to measure. If you aren't going to weigh it, make sure to spoon it into the cup, and then level it off. If you scoop the flour out with the measuring cup and then level, it could change the outcome of the final product.
This recipe was tested using Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt. If you use Morton's kosher salt or fine salt decrease by about half for volume, or use the same amount by weight.
You can store it in the refrigerator for 2-4 days or the freezer for up to 3 months. If you plan to store it for an extended period of time than wrap it up twice!
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Braden
This always comes out perfect and is delicious. It is now my go to pie crust. I previously used a recipe on another site that was much more difficult, and it made me think pie crust was much harder than it had to be. Follow the steps here and you are in good hands.
Victoria DeHart
Made this several times. It comes out best when you make it a day ahead and rest it in the fridge overnight.
I also made it by hand, "squishing" the butter and flour like Julia Child!
It came out beautifully, and it is my go to recipe now!
Sarah
This is the best pie crust I’ve ever made! My family kept commenting on how flaky it was. Love this recipe.
Tony Childs
This was easily the best pie crust I've ever made: shatteringly crisp, yet flaky and melt-in-your-mouth tender. M made a batch of apple hand pies and used Janie's Mill "Silky Smooth" pastry flour in lieu of AP + cornstarch, which took it to the next level. If you haven't tried Janie's Mill flours I can't recommend them enough.
Quick question. I want a beautifully-flaky crust like this for a French Silk pie. You said this pastry wasn't for cold pies. Is there a way to get the same crisp, tender, flakiness of this crust with either your Pâte Sucrée or Pâte Sablée pastries, or are they more dense?
Wonderful recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Haley
This recipe is amazing!
I have attempted pie crusts in the past and they were nearly inedible and I honestly thought I was just not a good enough baker to make my own pie crust. After reading through this blog I wanted to give it another shot so I made this recipe and I’m blown away by how good it turned out. This is my new go-to pie crust recipe, never going back!
Kelli Avila
Hi Haley! I'm so glad! YAY! Thanks for sharing! -Kelli
Michael
Never has my pie crust come out so beautiful! And without frustration. Thank you for the step by step instructions. This pie crust has what all the others are lacking!!
Deb B
The pie crust is awesome fabulous. It would help to remove ads. There are so so so many ads you can’t print the recipe without ads and the ads cover part of the recipe. Very frustrating!!!
Kelli Avila
Hi Deb---the income from the ads enables me to create these free-to-you recipes. However, they shouldn't cover part of the recipe at all...so I will look into that. Appreciate the feedback.
Jacqueline
How much butter? I can't find the measurement anywhere so I must be missing something!
Kelli Avila
Jacqueline, the recipe is located below the article. Keep scrolling til you see it.
Lynne
I made these hand pies for a potluck luncheon and they were a big hit. Easy to make and very delicious. This is definitely a keeper recipe.