Thanksgiving is pie time. Now most people don’t know this but my absolute favorite dessert is pie. So let’s talk pie crust.
Does it make you nervous? It doesn’t have to! I have the solution to every pie problem!
Recipe Problems:
First of all, there is no shame in the pie crust mix you buy from the grocery store. It’s “just add water” and works great! Just add a little bit of vanilla extract, give it a nice egg wash and it will look and taste perfect! But if you do want to make it from scratch, I have a wonderful and simple recipe near the bottom of the post!
Sticky Problems that Leave Holes in your Crust (and Heart):
The dough looks, great but then you put in down to roll it out and no matter how much flour you use on your rolling pin and under the dough it still seems to tear! No more.
Two words: “Parchment Paper”
Roll out your dough between large pieces of parchment paper, no flour needed and NO HOLES! When you’re done rolling, just peel off the top layer of parchment paper then gently flip the crust over onto you pie pan! So easy, your pies will never stress you out again.
Pretty Problems:
Your pie tastes delicious but you want it to look gorgeous too! Are you asking too much from the baking heavens? Nope! You just may need a few tricks up your sleeve…
Most of your pretty problems can be solved by making extra crust. If you have more dough to work with, you don’t need to roll it out quite as thin (no holes), you can have more to “flute” the edges with and you can even do fun things like this!
I found this photo from The Story of Kat who rolled out an extra slab of dough and used a small leaf cookie cutter to cut out leaves! (Link for small cookie cutters below.) She made little indentations on each of them as well and used a brush of egg white to stick them all together!
Martha Stewart shows us the same sort of technique with the cookie cutters. If you’re making a pumpkin or pecan pie, only place “leaves” around the edge! You can also roll out a whole piece of dough and take a few leaves “out” of the piece and leave sort of “leaf holes” on your pie! My favorite thing I did last year… braided the edge. It looked beautiful! Just slice 3 strips and braid them off to the the side and use an egg wash as “glue” to stick it on the edge on your pie!
And if you want to know how to Lattice your pie crust, well Inspired Taste has all the info you need! Check out their post for a video on how to do it as well as this awesome photo how-to! A tip from me… don’t worry about doing this many “strips” across. Martha Stewart’s Lattice pie in the image above only has three large strips across and it looks just perfect. So if you’re starting out, start with 3 or 4 thicker strips going each way to keep things simple. (Do you see the fun zig-zag edge on Martha Stewart’s lattice above? Check out below for the fun too that does that!)
Alright, and BEFORE you pop your pie in to bake, always give it a nice egg wash. Did I lose you? An egg wash in an egg white (no yolk) in a little bowl and take a pastry brush (or crumpled up paper towel) to “paint” the egg white all over the crust. You won’t use all of the egg white, so don’t worry about that. Then sprinkle some Turbinado sugar on top, or regular sugar. But I prefer Turbinado because it’s larger. The sugar gives a really nice crunch and sparkle to your pie and the egg wash gives it a golden look.
(I’ll be sharing this recipe for my Caramel Apple Pie tomorrow!)
Always check your pie when it’s about 75% done. Because depending on your oven, the top of the pie crust might start to get a little dark. If this starts to happen, just place a piece of foil over the top of your pie and let it bake the rest of the time! (Also, I always place a cookie sheet on the rack under my pies to catch any of the filling that bubbles up over the edge, it helps to keep a clean oven 🙂
Perfect Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 C flour
- 1/2 C butter
- 1/2 C shortening
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- ice cold water added 1 Tbsp. at a time
1 egg white for egg wash
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of egg wash for crunch and sparkle
Instructions
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1. Place all ingredients in a bowl (start with 2 Tablespoon water).
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2. Use a fork or "dough blender" (they're called different names, I have a photo and a link below to show you one!) and mix dough until crumbly. You'll sort of "cut" the dough rather than stir, and keep adding a little water at a time until you can form a ball with your hands. You just don't want to add too much water!
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3. Split dough in two and form two balls.
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4. Take one dough ball and place it on a large pice of parchment paper (see photo directions).
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5. Cover with another piece of large parchment and use a rolling pint to flatten into a large circle.
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6. Peel off the top layer of parchment, then gently flip the pie crust (with bottom parchment still on) onto your pie pan.
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7. Peel off parchment and press pie crust into pan.
Pie Crust Tools:
Parchment Paper: You can get it at just about any grocery store and you can re-use it! So don’t throw it away so quickly, just wipe it off and keep it with your cookie sheets for the next time you bake!
Pie Pan: You can get them an most grocery stores as well, I always seem to find mine at TJ Maxx, they’re cheap and cute!
Dough Cutter: For making pie dough from scratch, also great for making doughnuts! Like we need another reason for making doughnuts… Click the photo for a link to the one I have from Amazon!
Ravioli Wheel: It cuts and decorates your pie crust for a cute lattice decoration! Click the photo for a link to the one I love on Amazon!
Mini Leaf Cookie Cutters: Your pies will look just like Martha’s if you have these cute things. Click the photo for a link to the ones I’m getting on Amazon! I also like this one from Amazon too, it has more than just leaves.. (click here)
Okay this isn’t a Pie Crust gadget but this thing has made apple pies WAY less time consuming. I’ll talk all about it on the blog tomorrow when I give you my Caramel Apple Pie recipe, but this magic tool peels, cores, and cuts each apple in about 30 seconds! Click the photo to see the one I have! A lot of these gadgets clamp onto the edge of a table, but these newer ones suction onto your table with a little handle, so its a lot easier and you can do it on any table not worrying about it leaving a mark.
Have a great Pie Crust tip? Share it by commenting below!
I’ll be out of town most of this week with no internet, so if you post a question I will answer when I get back! (Don’t worry I have 3 more posts scheduled for this week (thank you auto-publish), so you’ll still get plenty of recipes even though I may be gone!)
Very inspiring! I am going to have to use your tips for Thanksgiving!
GREAT POST!!! Thanks!
I just bought your cookbook and I just wanted to let you know your site is the best thing since sliced bead. Thanks Betty
Aw, thanks so much Betty!
Have you made this pie crust recipe? I question adding the 2 T water to the flour before cutting the shortening into the flour. Water should be gradually added after cutting the shortening into the flour mixture. Just sayin’ as a senior who has made hundreds of pies and homemade crust. .
I made the recipe a while ago, I’ll give it another shot and update the recipe if needed. Thanks Linda, always great to hear from experienced bakers!
Hi
Love your posts, pictures and ideas. One question what is shortening ?
It’s a type of fat!
Shortening is solid, like Crisco or Lard, not to be confused with oil.
Hi Lizzy!
I am really excited to try this crust as I have a hard time with pies at the moment. Was wondering if you pre-bake your pies before filling them or just fill them and bake? If you pre-bake them do you mind sharing the process that you use! Thanks!!
Pre-bake crusts if the pie filling doesn’t have to be cooked. Like for pudding pies! But if you’re baking a fruit pie or a pumpkin pie that has to bake in the oven, then there’s no need to pre-bake!
My question is also in regard to shortening – what is it and what can I use in its place? I don’t think we get such a thing in the shops in South Africa. I have never seen it. Thanks. Kim
You can use lard or butter instead of shortening. When I am substituting for shortening in pie crusts I like to use about 60% butter and 40% lard for the total amount shortening needed.
Lard can give a slightly “meaty” flavor sometimes. Only use pure lard too, which is most likely what you have in South Africa. Just in case, lard is pork (pig) fat that has been rendered down.
I rendered my own pork fat and LOVE it. It sure gives pie crust a wonderful flaky crust.
Okay so I tried the parchment paper trick and it worked perfectly until I flipped the dough onto the plate…then I couldn’t peel the parchment paper off cause it was too sticky. Is this cause I rolled the dough too much and brought the dough to a warmer temperature?
Hi Mimi, you’re right! If the dough gets too warm it will stick. Try putting it into the freezer for 10 minutes or so to stiffen it up. That should help. Good luck!
Great tip!
Hm, maybe your dough just had more moisture in it than mine… Try adding a little bit of flour. But heat can always be an issue, I like to do it on top of a marble and cold stone surface to keep everything chilled!
Lizzy: I bought your cookbook a few months back and I must say it is definitely the best one I have found on cupcakes. I just love how you take a cake mix and add sour cream and buttermilk to attain a delicious homemade cake! I just made the chocolate mascarpone cupcake last night and passed them around the neighborhood……oh my! Absolutely awesome! I have 13 dozen cupcake orders for Thanksgiving and most of the five recipes I will be using came from your book. I don’t have a business…just love to bake and people love what I bake, so they ask me to bake for them…fun! Thank you for your wonderful recipes and for sharing them!
Oh fun! Thanks so much for sharing! You’ll LOVE my next book coming out this spring 🙂
Hi Lizzy,
I´d like to know how can I get your Cupcake cookbook, if I can do a bank deposit on your bank account, cause I don´t have any credit card at all. I really like all your web recipes so I´d like to try the ones from your book. Hope you can help me!!
Hugs and Kisses form Mexico, City
Veronica! You are so sweet! They are sold online on Amazon and through some other sites. You can make a PayPal account and pay that was I believe! That way you don’t have to use a credit/debit card!
Really like your practical tip on saving parchment. <3 I've been doing it for years–sandwiched btwn my stored cookie sheets. It does save money when it's used so often. Thanks for sharing the tip!
Use lard instead of butter and shortening for a flakier crust.
Great article! Will add your book to my wishlist.
– Here’s a trick I use: replace the ice cold water with ice cold vodka, it has a lower evaporation point than water and will give you a nice crispy crust.
I may have missed it, is there a bake time listed? Also… Have you made this crust as mini pies? Do you have a recommended bake time if so?
How do you keep the bottom crust ftom getting soggy on a two crust pie.
There are two things you can do! You can prebake the crust to start to stiffen it before the moisture gets involved! You can also brush the bottom crust with a layer of egg whites when you prebake it so it creates a seal!
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How can I prevent pie crust shrinkage when I use cut outs. I want my pie to look the same as it did when it comes out and sometimes the patterns or cut outs shrink. I’ve tried brushing them with milk which helped a little.
When making pie designs, why do they seem to melt when they’ve been baked? They’re beautiful before baking but the detail melts away.