This homemade all butter pie crust is made with just 3 ingredients and is the perfect vessel for just about any pie filling! All you need is flour, salt, and butter to create the easiest bottom pie crust. A touch of water, vodka, and a series of folds results in an ultra flaky, tender crust. Learn how to make this all butter pie crust by hand, how to prevent a soggy bottom, how to par-bake, and how to blind bake all in this post!
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Ingredients
- Flour
- Salt
- Butter
- Additional ingredients:
- Water: You'll need ice cold water to hydrate the dough.
- Vodka: Optional, but will hydrate the dough while hindering gluten development. If you're new to making pie crusts by hand, a little bit of vodka will ensure the crust still bakes up ultra flaky!
- Egg Wash: To seal the bottom crust and help it brown evenly, you'll want to brush it with an egg wash (1 egg + 1 tablespoon water) in between bake times.
FAQ
Cut cold cubed butter into the flour until quarter sized pieces are left. Roll the chilled pie dough out into a rough rectangle, then fold it into quarters. Chill for a few minutes, then repeat. This series of rolling and folding creates layers and layers of butter and dough. When the pie dough is baked, the butter creates steam and pushes the layers of dough upwards, creating an ultra flaky, buttery crust!
My three tricks to preventing a soggy pie crust:
1. Bake at a high temperature - 425 degrees F (220 degrees C)
2. Preheat the oven with a metal baking sheet in it
3. Use a metal pie pan and bake the pie directly on the hot baking sheet
Par baking is partially baking a pie crust for a pie with a filling that needs to be baked, like custard and fruit pies. By par baking, you can ensure that the crust bakes all the way through without a soggy a bottom!
Blind baking is fully baking a pie crust for a pie with no-bake filling, like a cold set chocolate or curd pie.
If you do not have pie weights, you can use dry beans or dry rice.
Technically you can, however I do not recommend it. Making pie dough by hand enables you to control the size of the butter pieces and the hydration of the dough.
- Pie pan: I recommend using a metal pie pan to ensure the crust has a crisp bottom.
- Baking sheet: Preheat the oven with a metal baking sheet in it to bake the pie directly on.
- Pie weights: Use normal pie weights, dry beans, or dry rice.
- Kitchen scale: You'll need a kitchen scale to weigh all of your ingredients (read why below)!
Pie recipes you can make with this 3 ingredient pie crust
- Black Bottom Pumpkin Custard Pie
- Mini Blueberry Galettes
- Lemon Rosemary Meringue Pie
- Ginger Molasses Cranberry Pie
How to accurately measure ingredients for baking
All of the recipes on this blog are carefully developed to create incredibly delicious baked goods that you can easily recreate in your own kitchen with success. The only way this is possible is to standardize the way ingredients are measured - by weight. Volume measurements are extremely inaccurate and leave room for significant errors. Not all measuring cups are made equally, so your one cup of flour will be different from my one cup of flour. By providing precise measurements in grams (aside from minor ingredients, which are given in tsp/tbsp), I can ensure that you can make the recipe accurately and with less cleanup! All you need is this kitchen scale.
If you would like to convert the recipe to volume measurements, this is the best conversion chart. If you chose to do this, I cannot promise a good result as I do not test my recipes with this method.
Trust me, once you try baking in grams you'll never turn back!
Happy baking! x
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Homemade All Butter Pie Crust
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 9-inch bottom pie crust 1x
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This homemade all butter pie crust is made with just 3 ingredients and is the perfect vessel for just about any pie filling!
Ingredients
- 200g all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 140g unsalted butter (cold, cubbed)
- 25g vodka (optional)
- 1 cup ice water
- egg wash (1 egg + 1 tablespoon water)
Instructions
For the pie dough:
- In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt.
- Cut the cold butter into cubes and toss in the flour.
- Using your fingers, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until quarter sized pieces are left.
- Add the vodka (optional) and a small amount of water, then toss with your hands to combine.
- Continue adding very small amounts of water until the dough can hold together, but is not overly wet.
- Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then chill for one hour.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a rough rectangle, fold in half, then again into quarters. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for another 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough out again into a rough rectangle and repeat the folding process. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill overnight.
- Roll out the pie dough into a rough circle about ⅛″ in thickness.
- Carefully place the dough in the pie pan, pressing up against the sides. Cover and chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
- Take the pie crust out, cut off the excess dough, and crimp the edges as desired. Dock the bottom and sides of the crust all over with the tines of a fork, then chill for another 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat it to 425 degrees F.
For Par-baking:
- Place a large piece of parchment paper over the pie crust and fill with pie weights, dry beans, or dry rice all the way up to the crimp.
- Place the pie pan on the hot baking sheet and bake for 18 minutes.
- Take the pan out, take all of the pie weights out, then brush the pie crust with an egg wash all over, except for the crimp.
- Bake for an additional 3-5 minutes or until barely golden. Allow pie crust to cool completely before adding the pie filling.
For Blind baking:
- Place a large piece of parchment paper over the pie crust and fill with pie weights, dry beans, or dry rice all the way up to the crimp.
- Place the pie pan on the hot baking sheet and bake for 16 minutes.
- Take the pan out, take all of the pie weights out, then brush the pie crust with an egg wash all over, except for the crimp.
- Bake for an additional 14 minutes or until evenly golden and fully baked through. Allow pie crust to cool completely before adding the pie filling.
Notes
- The most important thing with making pie crust is to always keep the dough cold at all steps. So use ice cold water and cold butter, and any time you touch the dough you should put it back in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
- Docking the pie dough is very important for the dough to be able to bake evenly - don't skip it!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece
- Calories: 233
- Sugar: 0.1 g
- Sodium: 90 mg
- Fat: 15 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.1 g
- Protein: 3.5 g
- Cholesterol: 60.9 mg
Keywords: 3 ingredient pie crust, homemade pie crust, homemade all butter pie crust, flaky all butter pie crust, par bake pie crust, blind bake pie crust, single pie crust recipe
Miranda says
I had never made pie crust from scratch before, but so glad I found this recipe! It’s shockingly easy to make and turned out perfect with a berry filling
★★★★★