What’s Better Than The Absolute Perfect Pie Crust
Perfect Pie Crust
This is Ina Garten’s Mother-in-law’s recipe and it is amazing. A delicious, flaky crust. Let me tell you, making your own pie crust should never be intimidating. In fact, making your own homemade pie crust is actually pretty easy. The best pies start with a flaky homemade crust, which is a lot easier to make than some people fear. The yield of this recipe is for 2 pie shells. You can freeze the pie dough in balls or rolled out.
Try these other sweet recipes: Luscious Lemon Squares, Easy Chocolate Ice Cream or Salted-Caramel Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 60
- Yield: 2 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
- 6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water
Instructions
- Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.
Notes
- When combining the ingredients, it’s important to keep them cold — particularly your fat. If the fat, especially butter, softens and begins to melt, the flour will absorb it, creating a tough dough.