Easiest All Butter Pie Crust Recipe

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Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Paula Deen's classic Apple Pie with a buttery homemade lattice top crust and brown sugar apples.

You guys. I finally did it!!

Me. The anti-homemade-pie-crust-maker. I finally, after 6 years of making desserts day in and day out and posting recipe after recipe… I FINALLY have an all-butter pie crust recipe that I feel confident enough in to share with you.

You know me. I don’t do complicated or time consuming or ridiculously tedious when it comes to the kitchen. Or anything else for that matter! So when I tell you that this all-butter pie crust is EASY, you can believe me. Cross my heart.

This recipe for chocolate pecan pie is a family recipe that always makes an appearance at our holiday dessert table!

Now, before we get started there are three tools you MUST HAVE before making this recipe. They are:

  • a KitchenAid Stand mixer (or similar) with the paddle attachment  OR a food processor
  • a gallon-sized zip top bag

On that last item, you couldย maybe squeak by with a piece of parchment paper (in case you are out: parchment paper substitutes). But if pie crust-making isn’t your thing to start with, then just make it easier on yourself and get a silicone baking mat. I personally use a Silpat or Roul’Pat, but I’ve seen lots of other brand mats that I think would work just as well.

Super simple filling bursting with juicy berries, buttery pie crust, and the 4th of July. What else could you need?

Are you ready to get started? I lots of step-by-step instructions and even a video lined up for you today! Because my goal is to make this easy for you. Easy peasy lemon squeezy y’all. If I can make an all butter pie crust from scratch, anybody can!

Here we go…

I like to use a stand mixer to mix the dough, but I know a lot of people prefer a food processor for crusts which is totally fine. To me, it’s just easier to throw all the ingredients in the stand mixer that I already have sitting on my counter. But that’s your call.

Start out with cold butter that has been cut into pieces. Toss that into the mixer bowl with the flour and beat them together at a low-medium speed until you have something that resembles crumbs. Add the salt, the vinegar, and the ice water, and continue to beat until (eventually) a dough forms. The mixture will look like crumbs for a few minutes, but that’s okay. Trust the recipe! Keep mixing and it will turn into dough, I promise!

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Divide the dough into two and place each piece of dough into a gallon-size plastic bag. Twist the top of the bag until all the air is out and the plastic is tight around the dough. Now press the dough into a disc in the bag. I like using the bag, because it contains the dough so nicely and helps form it into that perfectly round disc while preventing breaks and cracks.

This step will make it SO much easier to press and roll out in a minute.

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Remove the dough from the bag and carefully continue to press it out with your hands on the silicone baking mat. Continually press and shape around the edges of the disc to seal up cracks as they occur. Again, this will make it so much easier when it comes to using the rolling pin in the next step, because we are preventing the cracks (which are my nemesis when it comes to pie-making)

Pressing out the dough as much as possible with your hands (as opposed to the rolling pin) goes a long way in keeping the dough in tact.

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Finally, bust out that rolling pin!

Gently, gently, gently! Roll out the dough. Love the dough. Be kind to the dough. Otherwise… you’ll crack it and be so sad!

Now here comes my special trick. Once you’ve made sure that the dough has been rolled out to a be a little bigger than the size of your pie dish…

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.
Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

…use the baking mat to roll the dough around your rolling pin!

I know everyone uses the rolling pin trick to roll up their dough, but I’ve always struggled with my dough cracking and tearing as I did it. That is, until I discovered this method. Keeping the silicone mat against the dough for as long as possible will help prevent tearing and cracking until you’ve got the dough securely onto the rolling pin for transferring to the pie dish.

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Like so.

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.
Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Voila! Trim and crimp the edges, and you’re all done with the easiest all-butter pie crust of all time. Fill it with your favorite stuff (I prefer this Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie) and wow all of your Thanksgiving guests with this effortlessly delicious, buttery, thick homemade pie crust.

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.
Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Easy All Butter Pie Crust

Yield: 2 pie crusts

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup salted butter, chilled and cubed
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 7 tbsp ice water

Instructions

  1. Beat the butter in the stand mixer with the paddle attachment for about 30 seconds.
  2. Add the flour and mix until it looks like crumbs.
  3. With the mixer still running, add the vinegar and the cold water.
  4. Continue mixing until dough forms.
  5. Divide dough into two parts. Place each piece of dough in a plastic bag. Press the dough into a disc inside the bag.
  6. Remove from bag and press out with hands onto silicone baking mat.
  7. Use a rolling pin to gently roll the dough out to be a little larger than a pie dish in circumference.
  8. Use baking mat to gently roll dough onto the rolling pin to transfer to the pie dish.
  9. Press crust dough into the dish, trim, and fill for baking.

 

Follow these super easy instructions for a butter, flaky, delicious homemade pie crust.
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