A good pie crust will work with both sweet and savory dishes. Think quiche and apple pie. Both of these dishes need a hearty dough that won’t fall apart nor detract from the flavor of the filling. They have fancy names overseas such as shortcrust pastry or pâte brisée. Here in the good ole’ US of A, we call it “American flaky pie crust.” Sometimes we lack imagination…
The beauty of this recipe is it’s another 1, 2, 3 ratio. Water, Fat and Flour. Very similar to shortbread biscuits or cookies! It’s easy to remember if you call it shortcrust pastry as they have similar names. In fact, many will do a hybrid of the two and make a sweet pie crust for more bitter fillings.
I decided to show how to make this by hand since many don’t have a food processor or mixer. It’s much like making biscuits. I even accomplished making this with a bad shoulder and a cut finger (thanks, kitten for startling me this morning while slicing bread) on my good side. I am only including this tidbit to encourage you to try making pie crust. It’s super easy and if a person with one bad arm and one finger sticking up in the air can make it, so can you!
So now that you learned how to make the American Flaky Pie Crust, what will you put in its shell? Perhaps pumpkin pie?
How to Prepare Pie Crust for Baking
Cube butter and weigh out flour and sugar. 
Place sugar and flour in a large bowl, add a sprinkling of salt if you desire. 
With your good hand, pick up some butter and flour and rub it between your fingers. 
Continue doing this until you have breadcrumb consistency and no butter remaining is larger than the size of a pea. 
Make a well in the center. 
Pour in a couple tablespoons of water and begin squeezing the dough together. 
Shape in to a round disk and cover. Place in the fridge for 1/2 hour or overnight. 
Dust your clean work surface. 
See the bits of butter? This will be such a flaky crust! Reminds me of biscuits! 
Begin rolling out. If you start to get cracks like this, it’s because your dough is a little too cold. You can push them back together and let the dough warm up a bit. 
Turn the dough 90 degrees to keep it from sticking and to maintain a somewhat circular shape. 
Once it’s large enough for your pie pan, roll it up onto the rolling pin. 
Drape it over the pan. 
Press into the corners with your knuckle. 
You can press the bottom with a fork to prevent bubbles. 
Crumple up parchment and line the bottom of a pie shell. 
Fill with rice, bake 10 minutes. 
Remove rice and paper. 
Bake until the pastry just starts to turn golden and is dry to the touch. You can bake an additional 5 minutes if you prefer a dark golden brown crust. 
While still hot, coat the bottom with an egg white to prevent a soggy crust.
How to Prepare Pie Crust for Storage
To store, get a piece of parchment or wax paper. 
Once it’s large enough for your pie pan, roll it up onto the rolling pin. 
Place dough on parchment, leaving a gap on one end.. 
Fold down the gap. 
Gently roll up. 
You will want to cover it to prevent it from drying out. 
I use cling film. This can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen if wrapped again in aluminum foil for several months.
Flaky Pie Crust
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Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (226g) flour
- ½ cup (113g) butter, margarine, shortening or lard
- 2-3 tbs (30 – 45mL) water
- ¼ tsp (1g) salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, rub flour, salt and butter together with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs and no butter remaining is larger than the size of a pea.
- Add in water, one tablespoon at a time and squeeze dough together until it just starts to clump together and holds its shape, like wet sand.
- Form into a round disc and cover with cling film or store in an airtight container for 1/2 hour or overnight.
- Flour surface and rolling pin (if you don't have a rolling pin, you can use a drinking glass in a pinch.)
- Roll up and down, then turn 90 degrees (1/4 turn.) The turning keeps it in a round shape and prevents sticking to the counter.
- Repeat rolling up and down and turning until desired thickness.
To bake the crust
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C.)
- Drape dough onto a pie shell and press gently in place. Trim off excess.
- Prick the bottom with a fork.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 – 30 minutes to prevent shrinking.
- Crumble up a piece of parchment or aluminum foil and fill with rice.
- Bake 15 minutes, remove from oven and discard parchment and rice. Bake an additional 10 – 15 minutes until bottom is dry and crust is lightly golden brown.
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