Building Your Pie on a Firm Foundation

How to make a tasty crust

Dedicated readers might recognize this recipe: I included it as a part of my peach and blueberry struesel pie. Upon further reflection, though, I’ve decided that it’s deserving of its own heading. There are so many other different kinds of pies that can benefit from this recipe because a homemade crust improves any pie. I’d even go so far as to say I’d rather eat a pie featuring a poorly-made crust than a high quality store crust because when you make it yourself you show how much you care.

Lots of people get scared off by the prospect of making their own crust because it has an aura of difficulty about it: whether it’s the impossibility of predicting exactly how much water you’ll need to add or the task of rolling the crust out by hand, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a bit of both. It shouldn’t be, though. The process is surprisingly easy to learn, and the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Not only that, but the essential ingredients are all things you’re almost guaranteed to have on hand: flour, salt, butter and/or shortening, and water. That’s it. So, take on the challenge of crafting your own crust. You can even pretend it’s as difficult as people seem to think if it increases the adulations your guests shower upon your efforts.

Easy-to-Make Crust for one-crust pie

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 3-4 tablespoons cold water

Combine all of the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl and toss them together with a fork until they’re well distributed. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Work it through the flour with your hands until the butter pieces are about the size of peas. Working it with your hands instead of a pastry blender gives you greater control over which pieces of butter you’re breaking up and the overall consistency of the mixture.

Once the butter is evenly distributed in appropriately-sized pieces, add about half of the water and mix it through with the fork. Slowly add the remaining water while stirring, until the bulk of what you’re working with has coalesced into a clump into the center of the bowl, with a few smaller bunches on the outside. At this point, I like to say that the state of your mixture resembles the state of the banking industry, and that means that you’re done. Stop adding water and press it all together into a monopoly. Flatten it into a disk, and refrigerate, covered, while you prepare your pie’s filling.

To roll the crust, spread some flour on a clean work surface. Put the dough in the center of the flour, and dust it with a bit of flour, too. Roll it out evenly in all directions. If, while you’re rolling, your crust begins to stick to your work surface, stop, dust it with some flour, flip it over and dust it again; then continue the rolling process as long as it doesn’t stick again. Roll it until it’s about an inch or an inch and a half wider than your pie plate in all directions.

Fold the dough in half and in half again (ie into quarters). This will make it easy to pick up and transfer to the pie plate. Put the corner of the dough in the center of the pie plate and unfold it. Then, pick it up at the edge and push it gently into the bottom of the pie plate, turning it as you go so that you get it resting in the bottom of the pie plate all the way around. If you’ve rolled your crust out wide enough, it should hang over the top of the pie plate by a little bit. Roll the excess crust and then use your thumb and forefinger of one hand and your forefinger of the other to pinch and push it to make a fluted edge. Fill and bake according to your pie recipe.

If you’re making a two-crust pie, make a double batch of crust dough. Don’t flute the edge of the bottom crust. Instead, fill the bottom crust then roll out the top crust a bit smaller than the bottom. Roll the top and bottom crusts together and flute them to seal the edge. Vent the top of the crust by slicing several slits in it; doing so will allow steam to escape while the pie bakes.

4 Responses to “Building Your Pie on a Firm Foundation”

  1. Aurora Says:

    I had never made my own pie crust before today, when I made a double version of this recipe. Surprisingly, it really wasn’t that hard, though I must admit I’m not great at rolling it out–yet. My only word of caution is to not add more water even if you think it needs some. I was convinced that my crusts needed more water, but stuck it out through a couple minutes of mixing by hand and realized the water amount was perfect.

  2. Corduroy Orange » Blog Archive » Preparing for Potlucks Says:

    [...] Quiche To begin, make a batch of pie crust dough.  Wrap it up and refrigerate it while you prepare the filling.  Then, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. For the egg mixture, beat four eggs with a cup of milk, a little bit of salt (but not much because the cheese adds a fair amount of salt), a little bit of pepper (I usually use cayenne, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/3 tsp or so), some thyme, some basil, and a pinch of nutmeg, which Rob stresses is “essential” to the success of your quiche. [...]

  3. Corduroy Orange » Blog Archive » Counter-Intuitive Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Says:

    [...] Turn your oven to 450 F to preheat. Then, make a pie crust for a one crust pie, except in place of the extraneous spices suggested in my recipe, use a bit of curry powder instead. I wish I could offer more guidance than that, but the crust was something that I made just off the cuff & in a hurry, so I wasn’t measuring anything apart from my flour and butter. I didn’t even measure my water: I just went straight from the Brita filter until it looked right, and I was pleased to discover that after four years of making my own crusts, I’ve gotten to the point where I can just splash water in and have it come out correctly—which is encouragement for you to keep practicing your crusts even if you don’t think they come out perfectly: over time, the results improve; besides which, a poorly made homemade crust is preferable to a high-quality store bought crust because it shows an extra level of caring. If I had to guess, I’d say it was about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tablespoon of curry powder, but that’s just a guess. Refrigerate the crust dough while you mix the filling. For the pie filling, core and slice 2 cups of strawberries in large chunks. Cut the ends from and then slice two cups of rhubarb. I cut my rhubarb into a variety of sizes so that it would cook down to various textures: the large (1/2-inch cube) chunks survive in somewhat solid form; the itty-bitty guys (sliver-thin slices) basically cook into the sauce and infuse their flavor; plus there’s a range in between. I’d go with about 1/4 total volume each the little tiny guys and the big boys, with the remaining half being moderately sized. Also, don’t be too concerned with having exactly two cups of each rhubarb and strawberries. If you’ve got a little more than that, what’s the worst that can happen? You wind up with a slightly bigger pie. Pick the leaves from four stems’ worth of oregano. Cut it chiffonade–that means to roll the leaves up the long way (as a group) and then cut thin ribbons from them: as thinly as you can. Toss the chiffonade of oregano in with the strawberries and rhubarb. [...]

  4. Corduroy Orange » Blog Archive » Easter Dessert Recommendations Says:

    [...] Well, how comfortable are you making your own pie crusts?  It’s really fairly easy to do, requires only ingredients you’re likely to have on hand, and even if the crust doesn’t come out perfectly; it still is better than a storebought crust.  From there, you can go about anywhere. [...]

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