Making a pie crust from scratch is hard! Like I mentioned in my pumpkin pie post, this year I wanted to challenge myself with pie making and contribute to our Thanksgiving dinner party. As a serious home cook myself, I believe that a pie made with a pre-made crust doesn’t count as homemade. And I wanted to practice enough until I could bake a perfect pie before presenting it to anyone other than my husband. Yep, I’m just like the stereotypical Asian girl you see on TV shows, the one who’s too serious about everything. I was so glad that my instincts kicked in and I practiced before our Thanksgiving dinner, because it took me five pies to finally get a good result. And I’m pretty sure that three of the five were not entirely edible. I’m proud to say that I’m a seasoned cook when it comes to savory food. But not so much when it comes to baking. I can count the number of sweet dishes I’ve made in my whole life using the fingers on both hands. So why am I posting a pie crust recipe? Well, I believe that if I can nail a baking recipe and produce good results, the recipe is rock solid and you’ll be in good shape if you choose to use it.
Why this recipe?
I’ve watched countless YouTube videos, read dozens of recipes and notes from cookbooks, and tried out quite a few different formulas myself. Most of them failed miserably, until I found the Easy, All-Butter Pie Crust from Inspired Taste. I tried the recipe, and boom – a perfect flaky pie crust came out of the oven, just as the recipe promised. It was a suprise that making a perfect pie crust didn’t seem so difficult anymore. I didn’t really need to tweak a thing when I followed their recipe, because it was already perfect. Adam and Joanne even created a video to walk you through the whole process. I highly recommend you watch the video if you’re making the recipe for the first time. What I did slightly differently was shoot a lot of process pictures during my pie making process, create a brief workflow, and add a few notes to the recipe according to my own cooking experience. If you’re a first timer when it comes to pie crust making, I hope this post will help you walk through the process so can make a beautiful flaky pie crust on the first go. The one thing I added was to use the same pie dough to make pie decorations for Thanksgiving. These pie dough cookie decorations are perfect for any type of pie filling that is too runny to do a double crust. Simply use these pie crust cutters to cut leaf-shaped pieces from the dough sheet, and bake them with your pie crust. They look so adorable, don’t they? And notice how flaky these cookies are!
Workflow
Making a pie crust from scratch requires a lot of time and patience, because you need to constantly chill and rest the dough to achieve good results. If you’re making the pie the same day you’ll be serving it, I highly recommend you start in the morning to leave plenty of time to rest the dough. Or you can make the pie crust one day ahead to get the bulk of the work done, so you will just need to assemble and bake the pie before serving. Here is a brief workflow and timetable to help you become familiar with the process. Or you can scroll down to the recipe to see the detailed instructions. I highly recommend starting at least 6 hours before you plan to serve the pie. (1) Make the dough by using the food processor, then add ice water, knead slightly, and wrap it up. (15 mins)
(2) Let the dough chill in the fridge. (minimum 1 hour) (3) Roll out the dough and arrange it on the pie pan (rest 10 mins plus 10 mins working time)
(4) Make the pie garnish (10 to 15 mins)
(5) Rest the pie dough in the pan in the fridge (minimum 30 mins) Chill the pie garnish in the freezer at the same time (5 to 10 mins) Preheat the oven and heat up the pizza stone at the same time (30 to 40 mins) (6) Fill the pie crust with beans (or pie weights) and blind bake (minimum 30 mins) + Brush the pie with egg wash and bake again. (5 mins) Bake the pie decorations at the same time (15 to 17 mins)
(7) Let the baked pie crust chill completely before adding the filling (min 1 hour) (8) Assemble the pie and bake it (est. 40 to 1 hour) (9) Rest the pie until cooled before serving (1 hour or longer)
Cooking notes
Here are some of the cooking notes from all the resources I’ve studied, to help you make a better pie crust. (1) Keep everything cold When I’m making a pie, I always return anything that I’m not using at the moment to the fridge (or even the freezer) to chill. This is the most crucial factor to making a flaky pie. (2) Never over-knead the dough Over-kneading the dough will develop gluten, which produces a tough and chewy pie. Plus, overworking the dough will cause its temperature to raise too high, and the butter will start melting. (3) Rest (chill) the pie dough really well before baking After I arrange the dough in the pie pan, I always rest the dough a bit longer than the recipe calls for, just to make sure the gluten will have enough time to relax after I roll out the dough. (4) DO pre-bake the crust and chill it completely before filling it Nobody likes a soggy-bottom crust. I’ve found that pre-baking the crust makes a huge difference, especially for the bottom crust. Chilling the crust before adding the filling will further prevent the pie crust from getting soggy. (5) If you have a pizza stone, use it I place the pizza stone on the bottom rack of my oven, so the bottom crust will be browned beautifully and the crust on the edges won’t be over-browned. Phew, that’s about it, for making pie crust from scratch! I hope you learn something from this post and I hope your pie comes out beautifully <3 Happy cooking!
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
