Recipe video above. My go-to pie crust I've been loyal to for more years than I can remember, a classic pie crust also known as shortcrust pastry. Flaky and easy with a dough that comes together in 1 minute using a food processor, though you can just use your hands.Use for Sweet and savoury pies -Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie to the great Aussie Meat Pie!Makes pastry for 1 x 23cm / 9" pie dish or tart tin (serves 8 - 12 people). Double it for a covered pie (use recipe scaler). VIDEO and PROCESS PHOTOS above super helpful for newbies!
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time20 minutesmins
Chilling1 hourhr
Total Time1 hourhr50 minutesmins
Course: Baking
Cuisine: Western
Keyword: blind baking pie crust, how to make pie crust, pie crust, Shortcrust pastry
Pulse Dry: Place flour, sugar and salt in food processor. Pulse twice to combine.
Cut in butter: Scatter butter across surface. Pulse 5 times until the largest pieces are the size of chickpeas.
Add chilled water: With the motor running on low, pour 2.5 tbsp of water into the tube feeder.
Form crumbs: Keep blitzing for 10 seconds until crumbs form (also see video). Pinch between fingers - they should stick and form a dough.
HAND option: Whisk flour, sugar and salt in large bowl. Rub butter into flour with tips of fingers until it resembles crumbs - it should look the same as using a food processor. Then mix in cold water with rubber spatula, then proceed with steps below.
Form disc: Tip crumbs out onto work surface, bring together into dome (don't knead), pat into 2cm/ 4/5" thick disc.
Chill: Wrap in clingwrap then refrigerate 1 hour (up to 2 days, otherwise freeze).
Rolling out:
Dust with flour: Sprinkle work surface with flour, unwrap dough and place on the flour. Sprinkle top with flour, dust rolling pin with flour.
Roll out: Roll out into round that's 10cm/4" larger than 22.5cm/9" pie tin. Patch up and roll over cracks as necessary
Transfer to pie dish: Gently roll the pastry so it wraps around the rolling pin. Unroll it over the pie dish.
Drape pastry into pie tin (do not stretch/pull, causes shrinkage).
Trim: If making a pie with NO LID (like Pumpkin Pie), then trim edges with scissors leaving a 1 cm / 2/5" overhang. If making a pie with a lid (like a Meat Pie) then trim edges so they align with the edge of the pie tin (ie no excess overhang).
Tuck excess under, if appliable (ie per step above, if making a no lid pie). Then crimp or decorate edge as desired.
Refrigerate: Put pie crust in the freezer for 15 - 30 minutes (while oven heats up). This helps prevent shrinkage, firms up the butter again (flakiness!) and helps to ensure decorative crimped edges remain in tact.
Baking options (Note 4) - Blind bake the pie crust if it will be baked once filled (eg Meat Pie, Pumpkin Pie). Fully bake the pie crust if it will not be baked once filled.
Blind bake (par-bake, Note 4):
Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan).
Line & weigh down: Place 2 large pieces of parchment/baking paper crosswise over the pastry, then fill with baking beads or lots of rice or dried beans to weigh it down. (Note 2)
Bake 1 covered: Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from oven.
Bake 2 uncovered: Use excess paper to CAREFULLY remove hot beads, then return to oven for 5 minutes or until base is light golden (doesn't need to be 100% cooked though).
Cool: Removefrom oven. Cool 15 minutes in the pie tin before filling (another measure to avoid soggy base).
Fully baked option (Note 4):
Follow directions per Blind Baking steps above BUT bake at 190°C/375°F (170°C fan) covered with baking beads for 25 minutes, then 15 minutes uncovered until golden. Fully cool before filling.
Fill:
Fill and bake per directions of chosen pie filling - such as Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Meat Pie. The par baked pastry will not be 100% cooked, it finishes cooking with the filling. It's cooked enough so the crust will not go soggy.
Notes
1. Cold butter - key to flaky crumbly pie crusts is to end up with teeny tiny little bits of cold butter all through the pastry when it goes into the oven. The butter melts then creates air pockets which makes the pastry flaky.Butter softens and melts as you work with it, which is why there are refrigeration steps and the recipe specifically calls for cold butter and cold water.So if it's warm where you are, and it takes you longer than 5 - 7 minutes to roll out the dough, press into tin, crimp edges and get it into the oven, refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes or so before baking.2. Pie Weights stops base from puffing up and helps reduce pastry shrinkage.3. Baking the pie crust (partial vs fully cooked) - If the pie will be filled and baked (for example, Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie) then follow the blind baking directions. The crust will be partially baked, enough to prevent the base going soggy. It will finish baking with the filling.If the pie will be filled with something that will not be baked (like chocolate cream pie filling) then the crust needs to be fully baked. 4. Different measures in different countries - The measures in this recipe work with both US and metric (rest of world!) measures.5. Source - knowing me, it was probably originally sourced from New York Times, Cooks' Illustrated or America's Test Kitchen (that would be tyical of me) but it's now written exactly how I do it and there's every chance ingredients were marginally tweaked to what I think is the perfect balance!6. Nutrition is for pie crust only, per serving (8 servings).