Dorothy Kern
This All Butter Pie Crust is my absolute favorite pie crust recipe. It works EVERY time and produces flaky, buttery homemade pie crust that will make your pie recipe perfect!
With this easy tutorial you will get the perfect pie crust every time.
I‘m going to break down my favorite all butter pie crust recipe for you, step-by-step, with photos and a video.
I’ve been using this all-butter pie crust recipe for over 10 years. I always try other recipes but I come back to this one because it’s so easy and so good.
To make a good pie crust you need just 4 ingredients: fat, water, flour, and salt. You can use a few different kinds of fats for pie crust, the most popular being butter, shortening (Crisco), or lard. I’m going to go against the grain and tell you, my crust is all butter. I love butter (who doesn’t?) and I find that the taste of an all butter pie crust is so much better than any other recipe.
Table of Contents
- 4 ingredients to the perfect easy pie crust
- How to make pie crust from scratch
- Rolling out pie crust
- Pie Plate Size
- How to crimp your edges
- Stop the crust from burning
- How long to bake pie crust
- How to blind bake pie crust
- Pie Crust Resources
- Favorite Crazy For Crust Recipes
- My Favorite All Butter Pie Crust Recipe
4 ingredients to the perfect easy pie crust
A pie crust recipe with butter is such an easy pie crust to make. There are two ways I make this crust: in a food processor or by hand. You can do either one! This really is a no fail pie crust made with butter!
You just need to remember a few simple important tips:
- Make sure your butter is COLD and your water is ICE WATER. Cold ingredients yield a better crust.
- Make sure you chill the crust before you fill and/or bake it. Cold crust bakes better than any other kind, especially since this is an ALL BUTTER pie crust.
This crust makes one 9-inch pie crust. If you want to make a double crust pie, just double the recipe.
My all butter pie crust recipe is quick, fast, easy and delicious! It’s the perfect vehicle for ALL your pie recipe needs.
(The photo tutorial is below the recipe. Or watch the video instead!)
How to make pie crust from scratch
When you start making an all butter pie crust, you need to think ahead a little. Everything needs to be COLD. Cold butter and ice water are the keys to a successful crust. Before you start, dice your butter and then put it back in the refrigerator. Then fill a measuring cup with ice and water.
Add your flour and salt to your food processor. (Remember, if you’re using unsalted butter, add an extra ¼ teaspoon of salt.)
Now, if you don’t have a food processor, don’t fret. You can do this by hand with a pastry cutter. I’m just really, really lazy. If you’re using a pastry cutter, just whisk the flour and salt first.
Add your butter. It’s COLD, straight from the fridge. Don’t touch it too much. Don’t go answer the phone. Cold, straight from the fridge to the food processor!
Pulse a couple of times. If you’re using a pastry cutter, now is the time to hope you’re been working your arms. Put some muscle into it!
This is what it will look like:
Add your ICE water. Not the ice, just the cold water. Start with 2 tablespoons.
Pulse a few times, let it run a few seconds. I always add a third tablespoon of water at that point, always. But, depending on altitude and humidity and your kitchen and the star alignment, you might not need the third…or you may need a fourth. Run the processor and your mixture should go from this:
To this:
If it’s not coming together add more water, but wait to see if it comes together. You do not want a wet dough. It takes a few seconds for it to turn into the ball.
At this point, I do something unconventional: I don’t chill it yet. *gasp*
I hate rolling chilled dough. Like, I’d rather eat beets. So instead, I roll out my dough, put it in my pie plate, THEN chill it while I make my filling. This dough is sturdy enough to roll right away, and if it’s rolled out, it chills faster. Win-win, in my book.
(FYI, I do the same thing when I make sugar cookies!)
Okay, so now you have a ball of all butter pie crust dough.
Rolling out pie crust
Turn it out onto a cutting board or a silicone baking mat (like a roul’pat or a silpat) that’s been dusted with flour. FYI, if you’re using a cutting board or marble slab, you’ll need more flour. Silicone is better if you have it – less sticking with minimal flour, which is your goal. The more flour you add, the tougher your crust is going to be.
Press it into a disk with your hands, flour your rolling pin and roll it out into a circle. If you find that the rolling pin is sticking, you can add a sheet of wax paper so it won’t stick.
I like to pick mine up and flip it over and around every few rolls until it gets too big to do that. This is important because that way you know it’s not sticking to your surface. There is nothing worse than rolling out the perfect dough and have it crack and break when you go to pick it up.
Roll it until it’s about 1/4″ thick. Or, well, this thickness:
The easiest way to transfer your all butter pie crust to your pie plate is to roll it up on the rolling pin. If you’ve moved your crust around a bit, it should roll up no problem.
Pie Plate Size
Put it in your pie plate. Press it to fit, gently. This crust fits best in a 9″ pie plate. Beware: not all pie plates are the same size. Some are 9 1/2″, some are 10″, some are 7″. Be sure what size you have before you start. If I’m using a 10″ pie plate I double the recipe and use 2/3 of the dough.
How to crimp your edges
I like to lay the overhang flat around the pie rim, then fold it under if possible. It won’t be overhung that much around the whole pie plate. Some will be flat, some will have enough to fold under.
On the left I had enough to fold over, there in the center, not so much. That’s okay!
Now you decide how you want your edges. Crimped? Forked? (I’m sure there’s an official word for “forked” but whatever, I like making up my own vocabulary.)
This is what your crimped pie looks like:
Or make it pretty with a fork:
And it will look like this when you’re done:
Make it decorative: Another way I like to dress up my pie edge is to make a second all butter pie crust and use small cookie cutters to cut shapes and put them around the edges.
Stop the crust from burning
Then all you have to do is fill your pie and bake it! Here’s a tip so your pie crust isn’t too brown after baking (I hate a dark crust!): Use a pie shield or tear off strips of foil that are about 1 1/2″ thick. (No need to measure, just guesstimate.) Tear those in half and wrap them around the pie.
Then bake the pie, as directed. About 10-15 minutes before the pie will be done, remove the foil. So many recipes say to add the foil if the pie is getting too brown, but how are you supposed to do that without burning your fingers? (Um, you can’t. That’s a fact.) Make a preemptive strike – cover first, then remove so the edges can brown to a normal color.
And hey, all you crust haters who eat the filling and throw away the crust: this will make you like it, I bet. You probably hate it because it’s brittle and burned…if you follow that tip, it won’t be! 🙂
How long to bake pie crust
I have added baking times to the recipe because of reader comments, but you really have to go by the recipe you’re using. This crust blind bakes in about 20-30 minutes, but if you’re making a filled pie, you’ll need to bake according to the recipe directions.
All butter pie crusts don’t brown like a crisco crust does, so it’ll be lighter in color when it’s done baking.
How to blind bake pie crust
See my tutorial and video on how to blind bake this crust – it will take about 20-30 minutes and it’s a two step process.
Pie Crust Resources
- How to blind bake a crust
- How to make a lattice pie crust
- Crumble for any fruit pie
- How to make a two crust pie
Check out all of my pie crust recipes for even more inspiration!
Favorite Crazy For Crust Recipes
- Simple Pizza Dough Recipe
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies Recipe
- Dog Cupcakes Near Me
- Sausage Egg and Cheese Casserole Without Bread
- Mai Tai Drink
- What To Make With Bananas
Need some pie ideas to fill your crust with? Check out my Pie Recipe Collection!
Have you made this recipe?
Tag @crazyforcrust on Instagram or hashtag it #crazyforcrust
My Favorite All Butter Pie Crust Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter diced and chilled
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2-4 tablespoons ice water (I always use 2 tablespoons)
Instructions
- Make sure your butter is diced and cold before starting. Make sure you’re using ice water also.
Using a food processor:
- Combine flour and salt in food processor. Pulse once to mix.
- Add butter and process until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of water and pulse, a few times. I always add a second tablespoon of water and pulse until the dough forms a ball. This takes a few seconds. If you find your mixture is too dry, you can add another tablespoon of water, one teaspoon at a time.
- Turn the dough out onto a silicone baking mat, if you have one. If you don’t, you’ll need to flour your surface. Press the dough ball into a disk and roll to about 1/4″ thickness. If it sticks to the rolling pin, place a sheet of wax paper on top of the dough so you don’t have to add more flour. Be sure to flip and rotate your dough as you go so it does not stick to your surface. Roll out the dough to a few inches larger than your pie plate (about 12″ for a 9″ pie plate).
- Place in pie plate and press to fit. Tuck under any overhang and crimp or use the tines of a fork to decorate the edges. Chill until ready to fill.
By Hand:
- Add flour, butter, and salt to a large bowl. Cut your butter in using a pastry cutter. Work in one tablespoon of water at a time. I find I need to use 2-3 tablespoons of water when I’m doing this by hand.
- Turn the dough out onto a silicone baking mat, if you have one. If you don’t, you’ll need to flour your surface. Press the dough ball into a disk and roll to about 1/4″ thickness. If it sticks to the rolling pin, place a sheet of wax paper on top of the dough so you don’t have to add more flour. Be sure to flip and rotate your dough as you go so it does not stick to your surface. Roll out the dough to a few inches larger than your pie plate (about 12″ for a 9″ pie plate).
- Place in pie plate and press to fit. Tuck under any overhang and crimp or use the tines of a fork to decorate the edges. Chill until ready to fill.
- This pie crust is great for filling and the recipe makes 1 crust that fits comfortably in a 9″ pie plate. For a bigger pie plate or for a double crust, double the recipe.
- Make sure to chill the pie crust at least 30 minutes before filling or baking. If you’re blind baking the crust, chill at least 2 hours or freeze 30 minutes.
- The crust can be wrapped well with plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator up to 2 days or frozen for up to one month before baking.
Baking instructions
- For Blind Baking: follow the link in the notes below for detailed instructions. Prick the bottom of the pie crust with a fork. Layer a sheet of parchment paper in the bottom and up the sides of the crust. Fill the crust with pie weights (or dry beans/rice/etc) and bake at 400°F for about 15-20 minutes. Remove the parchment and pie weights carefully, then continue baking until cooked through and golden brown.
- For filled pies: bake as directed in the recipe you're using.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Snickerdoodle Chess Pie by Something Swanky, Peanut Butter Pie with White Chocolate Ganache by Wine & Glue, or Blueberry Crumble Cream Pie by I Wash, You Dry or some of my favorites:
Aunt Tootsie’s Lemon Meringue Pie
My favorite crumb apple pie recipe
All text and images © DOROTHY KERN for Crazy for Crust. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate.
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, read my disclosure policy.
Published on: September 30, 2018
I haven’t made many pies in my 70 years and the crust was always iffy. This recipe was so easy and came out beautiful! Because it was so easy, I may make more pies from now on.
Wow this recipe is sure fail proof.thank you so much I had the easiest time making this dough. Unbelievable. I did double the recipe I just omitted the salt second time around lol happy Thanksgiving everyone
Debbiedo
In the instructions with the photos you say, “(Remember, if you’re using unsalted butter, add an extra ¼ teaspoon of salt.)”, then in the recipe notes you state, “If you are using salted butter, omit salt.”
So do I use 3/4 tsp. salt if I’m using unsalted butter or the 1/2 that the recipe calls for?
The 1/2 the recipe calls for
Awesome recipe! It’s delicious and so simple. I was looking for a crust made with butter and stumbled on this one and was surprised at how easy it was. Thank you!
Incredible with super flaky, buttery layers! Best crust I’ve ever made.
Hi, I love this recipe and am pretty new to baking pies. Do you cook it for the same amount of time if you’re using a top crust? Also, do you cover the whole thing in foil when doing a top crust? That sounds like a dumb question, sorry if it is
No dumb questions! Really the baking time depends on the filling in the pie – so follow the baking time of the recipe you’re using. I recommended baking a filled pie at 450 for 10 min to get the bottom crust going, then lowering the temperature to 350 for the remainder of the time, and that’s how I write all my 2-crust pie recipes. However, follow the guidelines of the recipe you’re using. This crust doesn’t get super browned like a shortening crust, so I often brush it with egg wash before baking. And I usually cover the edges in foil or use a pie crust shield, just for the outer edge of the pie.
WOW! I had given up on ever being able to make pie crust. But this one worked! I appreciated your clear instructions and photos. I don’t have a food processor and have struggled in the past with my pastry cutter, so I tried using my electric mini chopper and – success! I was basically shocked when the dough came together like your picture. I also appreciated the tip of rolling out the dough first, then chilling. So much easier. Thanks so much. Who else is appreciating every small win in 2020? 🙂
Love this!!
My goodness, this is a very forgiving recipe! I was having “a day” in the kitchen yesterday, mostly not being able to read 🧐… I knew I wanted to double the recipe for an apple pie, but it’s really important to double ALL of the ingredients! I had it all mixed up and in a ball before I realized I’d pretty much only doubled the butter. I then added more flour and more water, thus handing the dough a LOT! I had zero hope this crust would turn out, but guess what? It was one of the better tasting and textured crusts I’d ever made, including when I managed to follow the directions! Hopefully the next time when I do it right it’s just as tasty 😋
Been struggling with various pie crust methods for years (and oddly enough, I’ve found butter ones to be much harder than vegan). Yours is the best I’ve run across…your descriptions are clear, succinct, and *make sense*. The crust comes out great. The best, thank you!
I’m so glad!
Can I use the kitchenaid mixer instead the food processor?
I think it’s best if you don’t use a food processor, that you use a pastry cutter and make it by hand.
I haven’t made the pie crust yet but, can you chill the pie crust overnight?
Yes you can, you can freeze it too.