I was asked by my friends at Organic Valley to write about and share the best all butter pie crust recipe. What a dream right? Growing up, I never knew there were other fat options besides butter. We were an all-butter household, and my mom was very particular when it came to buying high-quality butter. It’s no wonder I owned and operated a bake shop that went through hundreds of pounds of organic butter a month for over 10 years! So today I’m sharing tips and tricks for making the best homemade all-butter pie crust.
Many people are intimidated by making their own pie crusts, but it is one of the easiest things to make at home and one that is truly worth doing over buying a store-bought pie crust. All you need are a few simple ingredients: Organic Valley Salted Butter, organic flour, organic cane sugar, and water.
Equipment
There is no special equipment needed to make a homemade pie crust made with butter! All you need is a sharp knife to cut the butter. You absolutely can make the dough completely with your hands, which is how I made pie crust for years until our bakery-level volumes got too much. That’s when I learned you can also use a stand mixer! Or another helpful tool is a pastry cutter, which is small, inexpensive, and can be nice so you don’t warm up the butter too much while working it.
Ingredients & Helpful Tips
So let’s talk ingredients. We know pie dough is made up of just four simple ingredients: Organic Valley Salted Butter, organic flour, organic cane sugar, and water. With so few ingredients, each one has to work hard to create a delicious crust, so choosing high-quality ingredients makes a big difference, and that's why I always go organic. There’s no doubt that the best thing about pie crust is its flaky texture.
What makes pie crust flaky? Two factors are at play here, and they both involve butter.
Keep Your Butter Cold
First, keeping the butter cold is completely necessary to make a flaky pie crust. Why? Because cold butter won’t fully blend into the dough like softened butter does. When the pie crust bakes in the oven, the cold butter melts, leaving air pockets in the dough. The moisture in those air pockets turns to steam from the heat of the oven, expanding the air pockets. This results in a flaky crust. So that’s the first step: cold butter.
When it’s warm outside, or warm in your kitchen, the butter begins to soften the moment it’s out of the fridge. Plus, some people just have hot hands, so working with the butter to simply cut it will warm it immediately. I have a few tips for beginner pie bakers to make sure your butter stays cold during the dough-making process. We use these tips at my bakery to ensure that our pie crusts are flaky every time.
When making the dough, prepare your other ingredients first. Measure the water and place it in the fridge so it stays cold, then measure the flour and sugar into your mixing bowl. Cut your butter, place it in the bowl with the flour and sugar, then place the bowl in the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to ensure everything is truly cold. Finally, using a stand mixer or pastry cutter helps keep the butter colder longer, but if you are using your hands, work as quickly as you can, or if you must, put the bowl back in the fridge for a bit if the butter begins to get too soft.
Cut Small Butter Pieces
Second, cut the butter into small pieces. The smaller the butter chunks, the flakier the crust. This is an easy rule to remember when you’re making pie crust from scratch without having to know exactly why it works. It’s something I knew for years from baking at home just from trial and error, but I didn’t know why. But it’s very simple: The more butter chunks you have, the more distribution of butter throughout the dough, and therefore, you’ll have a more consistently flaky crust.
Some people prefer to grate the butter, but I prefer cutting small chunks over grating as I think it’s easier. Plus, I feel grating can allow the butter to soften faster than small chunks. If your butter chunks are very large, you’ll have fewer butter pockets, so the dough won’t be as flaky all around. Also, large butter chunks may also cause holes in your pie crust where your filling can leak out.
Rolling Out the Dough
Keeping the dough cold is key while rolling out the crust too. Prepare your fillings or par baking essentials first. Then remove the dough from the fridge and begin rolling it out. Rolling out the dough is where beginners can suffer as this should be done very quickly to—you guessed it—keep the butter from getting too warm. If your dough feels warm or sticky, it’s too warm; pie dough should feel cold and firm the entire time.
But don’t worry, there’s an easy fix. Simply place the filled raw pie back in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to keep the dough cold and firm before baking. This trick ensures that your pie dough is cold when it goes into the oven so the butter can work its magic and create a buttery flaky crust.
Par Baking
The last thing we’ll cover is par baking. Then you’ll be ready to make my easy pie crust with butter, and become the pie baker of your family!
What is par baking? And when do you need to do it? There is a very easy answer to this!First, par baking is short for partially baking. Partially baking the crust before adding your filling will help the crust stay where it’s supposed to stay (on the sides of the pie dish) while your filling bakes and sets.
Second, the way to remember if you need to par bake or not is very simple: If your pie filling is liquid, then par baking is required. If it’s not liquid, then it’s not required. To elaborate, most fruit pies such as apple, peach, and blueberry are full of fresh fruits, sugar, flour, and more. This type of pie gives your pie filling weight and volume, which will also hold the sides of the pie crust in place in the oven as everything starts to heat. If a pie filling is liquid–think pumpkin or pecan–when the dough gets hot in the oven it can easily melt and fold into the pie filling before it has set.
Although par baking is a technical-sounding term, it’s nothing to be intimidated by. Place a piece of parchment paper in the crust and form it to the dough. Then add something to weigh it down and act as a fake filling. You can get pie weights, but something simple like rice or beans work just as well. Fill to the brim, and bake. Reserve the rice or beans as your “pie weights” and you can reuse them forever! I keep mine in a Tupperware clearly labeled PIE WEIGHTS, so there’s no confusion in the pantry!
I hope these tips help dismiss any intimidation you may have had over making an all-butter pie crust. Although I shared numerous tips and tricks here, it truly is a simple thing to do. Choose organic ingredients, keep everything cold, and work as quickly as you can. Now, here is my recipe for my All Butter Pie Crust.
This four-ingredient, all-butter pie crust recipe is perfect for apple, blueberry, strawberry pies, and more. You can fill this easy pie crust with whatever fruit filling you love! You can even freeze your pre-made dough for up to one month, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours, and use. Looking for pie inspiration now that you have all the tips? Find my pie recipes here.
Why Organic
Why use organic ingredients in this recipe? You all know I’m a huge organic advocate, and I bet you may be thinking sometimes, Why would I even bother to use organic ingredients in something that is so sweet and indulgent? But, that is the exact reason why you should use organic ingredients! Sweet things need to have flavor in order to be good, otherwise they are just sweet and they don’t taste like much else. Organic ingredients are more pure than conventional ones, therefore they actually have more flavor than the non organic options. Say it with me, organic means more flavor! And not just more flavor but a more true and pure flavor. And organic ingredients are much healthier for you to eat in general as they do not contain GMOs or anything artificial. Plus, you are being environmentally friendly when you choose organic ingredients!
So, I highly recommend that you buy the best organic ingredients for this recipe! You can also shop my Amazon Storefront for all my favorite organic ingredients here. Tip – hover over each ingredient to see the name. And if you want to learn more about organic foods and the difference, read my post here on Food Labels and What They Mean.
Use this All Butter Pie Crust recipe for any type of pie that calls for a double crust. What is a double pie crust? A double pie crust means a bottom and a top pie crust!
Ingredients
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons cold water
227 grams (1 2/3 cups plus 2 tablespoons) organic all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1 teaspoon organic cane sugar
3/4 cup (170 grams) Organic Valley Salted Butter, cold
Directions
- Measure the cold water and place in the fridge.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl), add the flour and cane sugar. Chop the butter into small cubes by cutting each stick in half, then cutting each half in thirds, and from there chopping into small cubes. Place the butter in the bowl with flour and sugar and place in the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to make sure the butter is truly cold.
- Remove the mixing bowl and water from the fridge. Place the bowl in your stand mixer and mix on low until the mixture looks like wet sand. (If not using a mixer, use a pastry cutter, potato masher, or your hands until the mixture resembles wet sand). Immediately add all the water and mix just until the dough comes together (do not over-mix).
- Divide the dough into two pieces (top and bottom). The top should weigh about 6 ounces (170 grams) and the bottom should weigh about 11 ounces (312 grams). Form the two pieces into round disks, and—one at a time—press the disks with your hands, similar to kneading, to incorporate any dry spots or butter chunks and to gently make the disks wider and flatter. The larger the disks you can form now, the less work you will do when rolling it out (and the quicker you’ll be!). Wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped dough in the fridge and chill overnight.
- When you’re ready to roll out your pie crust, remove the larger disk from plastic wrap and lightly sprinkle flour on the top and bottom. Flour a work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll and then rotate your pie crust 45 degrees and then roll and rotate again. This will help you roll the disk out evenly. Roll out to1/4-inch thick; it will be about 11 inches in diameter. Set aside. Repeat with the smaller disk, which should be about 9-inches in diameter.
- Continue to follow your pie recipe for filling and baking.
Recipe Video
Notes
- High Altitude — Follow the recipe as noted.
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