Easy Flaky Pie Crust Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making flaky crust? ›

The key to the flaky crust is to move fast! Rolling and folding the dough while the butter is still cold creates distinct layers of butter and flour that will steam apart during baking, making the crust light and flaky.

All-purpose flour is the best flour to use in flaky pie crust. It creates that light, flaky texture that's key for the perfect texture. I don't recommend using another type of flour. The medium amount of protein in all-purpose flour makes for a tender crust; using high-protein bread flour leads to a tough, chewy crust.

The pros: Butter has the best flavor. A butter pie crust forms light, lofty, flaky layers while it bakes. The flakiness comes partially from the water content of butter, which evaporates as the pie bakes and turns to steam, separating and puffing up the layers in dough.

More typically, flaky pie dough requires a ratio of about 1:2:3 in terms of fats:liquids:flour. For instance, a common recipe might suggest using 1 cup of fat (such as butter or shortening), 2 cups liquid (usually cold water), and 3 cups flour.

The acid in the apple cider vinegar tenderizes the dough by slowing the gluten production in the dough. This prevents it from getting tough and elastic like bread dough. Love me tender. If you've ever bitten into a slice of pie with a tough crust, you know the value in a tender, flaky pie crust.

Butter for flakiness and flavor, and shortening for its high melting point and ability to help the crust hold shape. You can use butter-flavor shortening if desired. If you want to skip the shortening, feel free to try this all-butter pie crust instead.

Some bakers use milk or buttermilk in their pie crust. Thanks to their milk solids, both will help crust brown and add a bit of tenderness. But the classic liquid in pie crust is water — ice water, to be precise.

Crust dust is a 1:1 mixture of flour and granulated sugar. When baking a pie, especially a fruit pie, a couple of teaspoons of crust dust sprinkled into the bottom of the crust will help prevent the crust from becoming saturated with juicy filling as it bakes.

Shortening has a higher melting temperature than butter. However, this also means that unlike the very hard chunks of cold butter that remain in the control dough, shortening is soft enough that it is easily overworked, resulting in a crumbly crust instead of a flaky crust.

What are two disadvantages of using all butter in pie crust? ›

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using butter in a pie crust? Advantages : excellent flavor and forms distinct flaky layers. Disadvantages: Expensive and butter melts easy bettween 82.5 and 96.8 degrees F. It takes more time to make pastry because it must be refrigerated.

Some cooks swear by the food processor, but it has drawbacks. Adding the water via a food processor can very quickly result in an overworked dough (read: a tough crust). Making crust by hand allows you to really get a feel for what it should feel like, but it's slower and more labor-intensive.

A little leakage is fine, but if you find that you are getting pools of butter, it is likely that you have not incorporated the butter well enough. Pie dough is cracking when you go to roll it out. This could be because it is too cool, or your dough is under hydrated.

Super-flaky pie crust: the technique

Classic puff dough gets its flaky layers through a series of “turns:” a slab of butter is enveloped in dough, then the whole is rolled, folded, and turned multiple times, each turn resulting in more layers.

The fat may have been too warm and has blended with the flour instead of remaining in layers. Make sure you rest the pastry sufficiently between rollings.

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. Flaky pie pastry should be thoroughly chilled before baking and baked at a high temperature, ideally around 425ºF at least at the beginning of the bake.