Grandma’s Pie Crust: This pie crust is the ultimate perfect ratio of flour and butter/shortening. The addition of a little sugar and a pinch of baking powder (like Grandma did) makes this the flakiest tastiest short crust you will ever have. It’s basic, but stellar in texture and taste, and it’s been around the block for well over 100 years.
Ah, my Grandma’s Pie Crust is one of the few recipes she passed on to me. I have missed my grandmother dearly for so many years, but I think of her every time I make her pie crust. She never had it written down, it was all verbal and I had the sense at one time to write it down. I was still in my teens, so me having good sense was hit and miss. Look at that flakey crust below; Browned Butter Pear Pie!
The few tips she had were flour to fat ratio, baking powder, and cold water. I see a lot of recipes using ice cold butter; in her words “cold shortening is for people who overwork the dough.” Hence, she did not believe butter or fat needed to be cold to have fantabulous flakey pie crust. And, in my experience, she’s right. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not casting shade on cold butter users, I use cold butter a lot. As some of you know, I can be an impatient baker and I know my way around butter or shortening that is NOT cold.
The dry ingredients are always stirred together first, the butter or shortening cut in until crumbly and pea-sized. These pea-sized bits of butter/shortening create pockets in the dough that when baked makes the dough flakey.
Grandma’s Pie Crust Dough Tips
- Do NOT pack down flour when measuring, but do spoon and level with a knife.
- Vegetable shortening and Butter at a 50-50 mix is best (but you can opt for all of one or the other)
- Use COLD water, especially if your fat of choice is at room temp. As the water will be added all at once, you need the cold water to not warm up the butter and shortening.
- Never knead pie dough. Stir just enough until it forms a ball. You want to keep those pockets of fat intact. These will pea-sized pockets is what will explode during the baking time.
Once your dough ball is ready, generously flour your countertop surface and section off half of the dough for the bottom crust. Lightly pat the dough into an approximate 4-inch disc and roll out about 2 inches larger than the pie plate. I used 50-50 butter and shortening for the dough used in these pictures. (Butter has a water content that shortening does not. Even though all butter crusts are delicious, it does change the texture a bit.)
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4-inch thick, slightly thinner is okay too. This is a soft dough, and if you haven’t worked with softer pie dough, I would suggest to roll it up onto the rolling pin and unroll over pie plate. If your first attempt tears, I would just leaving the tear instead of re-rolling. Fix the tear by using water or egg wash, overlap pieces, and press together to seal. If it’s the bottom crust, no one is going to see a tear.
Once in the pie plate, trim off the extra dough. If the crust is in a metal pan, I use the dull side of the knife so as not to possibly cause any possible metal shavings.
The bottom crust is now ready for blind-baking, single crust pie, double crust, or filling and crumb topping. Please HAVE SOME FUN! Cut out some leaves, change up the design for single crusts; baking is fun so play with the dough, just don’t overwork it!
Blind Bake Crust (aka pre-baked)
Sometimes you want a baked pastry/flour crust for other pies as even some baked pies call for blind baking a pie crust. Here are the simple steps: Blind baking drives me nuts, but I do it when the pie needs it.
- Preheat your oven to 350 F and line pie crust with foil that goes up on the sides. Gently press in the foil as form fitting as possible, without crushing or tearing dough.
- Fill foil with about 1 pound of dry beans or rice and bake in oven for 15 minutes. Remove pie crust from oven, remove foil with dry beans, and return crust to oven for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (The rice or beans you use can be re-used as pie weights, but you should never try cooking them to consume in anything.)
- You have just pre-baked (blind baked) your pie crust to be used with any pie, cream, custard, baked, etc.
I used tines of a fork for criss-cross pattern and crimped the other crust by hand.
And, as you will have some extra pie dough trimmings, roll out the left over dough and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle on brown sugar or granulated sugar with cinnamon. Bake at 375 F for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on your oven for what we call Pie Crust Cookies! *See recipe notes using leftover dough for a savory snack.
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Grandma’s Pie Crust
Grandma's Pie Crust; The flakiest baked pie crust with the perfect fat to flour ratio, and tips straight from my Grandma to you.
1
double crust pie shell30
minutesKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
- Grandma's Pie Crust – for one Double crust 9-inch pie
2 cups 2 all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons 2 sugar (omit for savory pies)
1 teaspoon 1 salt
1/8 teaspoon 1/8 baking powder
1 cup 1 shortening or butter or half of each
1/2 cup 1/2 cold water
Directions
- In a large bowl, stir all of the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt).
- Using a large tine fork or pastry cutter, cut in the shortening/butter of choice until pea-sized and crumbly.
- Add the cold water all at once and mix just until it forms a ball (do not knead or over mix). Divide dough in half.
- Roll out one half on a generously floured surface about 2 inches wider than the pie plate (11-inches for a 9-inch pie). As this is a soft dough, roll up on to rolling pin and unroll onto pie plate.
- If you are making a top crust, after you have added your filling, wet the edges with water or egg wash, and roll out top crust, but it only needs to be about 1-inch wider than pie plate.
- Crimp the edges as desired, by hand or with fork, and bake as directed for pie.
Notes
- Depending on how much leftover dough there is, you could also make mini cheesy pinwheels. Roll out dough in a rectangle, spread some cream cheese & shredded cheddar (or cheese of choice) and sprinkle on seasoning. Roll up, cut in 1/2-inch slices and bake sliced side up also at 375 F for about 15 to 20 minutes.
