Pie season is just around the corner, so I thought I’d share with you the only homemade pie crust recipe you’ll ever need! Made with an unexpected ingredient and made in the food processor, you can have a perfect pie crust chilling in your refrigerator in a matter of minutes!
This easy homemade pie crust recipe is essentially foolproof and comes out perfectly buttery and flakey every single time! This recipe has been my family’s go-to for over a decade and it’s what I use to make my chocolate pie. Be sure to check out the video at the bottom of the post walking you step-by-step through the recipe!
This is it, pie-loving friends. The only pie crust recipe I ever use, one that my mom has been making exclusively for over a decade.
You might have caught this easy pie crust recipe before on my website. I shared it with my apple turnovers and also my turkey pot pie, but it’s about time that this recipe gets its own post.
While it may be a little bit more effort than my graham cracker crust recipe, it’s one of the easiest pie crusts I’ve ever made and only one that has never failed for me. It has a classic pie crust taste, a buttery, flaky texture, and it comes together in a food processor (no obnoxious pastry cutters!) and uses a perhaps unexpected ingredient…
Sour cream!
Instead of worrying over adding exact amount of ice water, you’re going to simply add sour cream to this recipe. This ingredients yields one of the flakiest, best tasting pie crusts of your life. Unlike those ice water recipes, this easy pie crust recipe turns out for me perfectly, every time. And in case you’re worried, it does not taste like sour cream! Nobody is going to be able to tell that you used sour cream in this recipe.
How To Make Homemade Pie Crust
You’ll make everything in a food processor, combining your dry ingredients first and pulsing them until they’re combined. Next, add very cold butter that you’ve first chopped into pieces.
Pulse until your mixture resembles coarse, sandy crumbs.
Your mixture should resemble coarse crumbs, as seen here, after pulsing the butter
Next, add your sour cream and pulse again until your dough just begins to clump together. It should look like this when it’s finished 👇🏼 (don’t overdo it!).
How your pie dough will look when it’s just beginning to clump together and is finished with the food processor
Next, transfer your dough to a clean, lightly floured surface where you’ll use your hands to gently knead the dough together.
Once it’s formed into a smooth, round ball, use your palms to lightly flatten the dough. Wrap your pie dough tightly with clear wrap and place it in your refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. If you chill the dough for longer, you may need to let it sit at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes before rolling it out, as the colder it is the stiffer and more difficult to work with it will be.
Roll your dough out onto a lightly floured surface into a 12″ circle. I like to roll my dough out slightly larger, and then use a pizza cutter to trim up the edges to that they are neat and even. If yours aren’t, you can always just fold them underneath for a prettier looking edge to your pie crust.
If you’re using this easy pie crust as part of another recipe, it’s likely that the recipe will have instructions for filling and baking the crust. However, some recipes, especially those with no-bake fillings, will require a pre-baked pie crust, so I’ve provided instructions in the recipe for blind baking.
How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust
Blind baking simply means baking a pie crust without filling it first. In the past, I’ve blind baked pie crusts by filling with beans or pie weights, but this method from Serious Eats using sugar has quickly become my favorite method.
- Arrange your rolled out pie dough into your pie plate as desired and place in the freezer while your oven is preheating
- After chilling, line your chilled pie crust with a large piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper. Be sure to use a piece large enough that it hangs over the edge of the pie plate so you can simply grab each end and and lift it out of the pie once it has finished baking.
- Fill the foil or parchment paper with sugar (pie weights or dry beans will work, but I really like using sugar). The sugar should evenly distribute its weight against the pie crust, holding it in shape as it bakes.
- Bake 50 minutes or until pie crust is baked through and lightly golden brown.
- Allow to cool completely (otherwise it may shrink!).
Once you are finished baking, allow your sugar to cool before lifting the parchment or foil from the pie crust. You can either re-use the sugar in your baking or you can save it separately to use for all of your future blind baking.
Making your own homemade pie crust is as simple as that. Try this recipe out for yourself and let me know what you think!
The BEST Easy Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (125g)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter cold and cut into 12 pieces (85g)
- ¼ cup sour cream (60g)
Instructions
- Make the crust first by combining flour, sugar, and salt in the canister of a food processor. Pulse to combine.
- Sprinkle butter pieces over the mixture and pulse again until coarse crumbs form.
- Add sour cream and pulse again until mixture begins to clump together.
- Carefully (remove the blade first!) remove the dough from the food processor and use your hands to shape it into a ball. Flatten slightly into a disc and wrap in cling wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Remove chilled pie dough from refrigerator and transfer to a clean, lightly floured surface. Allow dough to sit for about 5 minutes and then roll dough out into a 12" circle and place in a 9" or 10" glass pie dish.
- Gently lay the pie crust into a 10" pie pan, folding under the excess dough beneath itself and crimping with a fork.
- If pie crust is to be used with a baked filling, follow that recipe's instructions for filling and baking.
For Blind Baking
- If baking pie crust alone (or "blind baking"), transfer your prepared pie dish to the freezer and preheat your oven to 350F.
- Once oven is preheated, retrieve your pie dough and gently line it with aluminum foil or parchment paper*, being sure that the aluminum is molded to the sides of the pie crust, especially (you want to make sure they don't collapse or sag while baking) -- make sure the edges are covered so that they do not over-brown/burn.
- Fill the aluminum with sugar** and place pie pan on an aluminum cookie sheet.
- Transfer to oven and bake on 350F for 45-55 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely before lifting out the aluminum foil and sugar**( and finishing with desired filling.
Notes
Nutrition
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Tools used in this Pie Crust Recipe
- Pyrex 9 ½″ pie plate (3 pack): I literally have 5 of these pie plates, they’re simple and easy to store and I love them!
- Wooden rolling pin: A classic for every kitchen, this is what I’m using in the video
- 8 cup food processor: I LOVE this food processor! I read hundreds of reviews before picking this one and have had no regrets.
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
Originally published 09/18/17
Sarah
Can i make this without a food processor?
Sam
Hi Sarah! You can cut the crust together by hand. 🙂
Margaret
Can you use this pie crust to make fried hand pies?
Sam
Hi Margaret! This crust will work well for hand pies. 🙂
Liza
This was so tasty and easy! I’ve never made an ice water pie crust so I can’t compare it, but I don’t feel the need to try it! It’s was easy to make bigger batches to save for later too. And thank you for including weight measurements, especially for things like sour cream. I love using a food scale to bake, everyting turns out better.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Liza! 🙂
Karen Jones
Hi, sam
I usually love all your recipes i have used quite a few, this pie crust recipe just didnt work for me.. it was entirely toooo soft. kept it in the fridge longer than the time and it came togeather well , I am an avid baker i made this for a pot pie and had to end up making the one i always use. didnt care for this at all.
Sam
I’m so sad to hear this, Karen! I use this for my pot pie too and haven’t ever had this issue, I’m sorry you experienced this!
Janet Reed
Hi, I used your pie crust recipe and your buttermilk pie recipe. Just took the pie out of the oven. The pie crust shrank a little but more importantly it’s bubbling around the outside of the crust. I can’t tell if the filling broke through or if it’s moisture from the crust itself. I accidently left a pan of water in the oven from when I baked some bread so that may have messed it up. I’m excited to try it and hopefully it will taste better than it looks. I’ve never been very good at piecrust so I’m trying to practice. Do you find that your crust shrinks more when using a glass pie pan?
Sam
Hi Janet! I think the water in the oven would be the issue, too much moisture. A little bit of shrinking isn’t uncommon with any pie crust, but I don’t find that I have much shrinking with this one any more in a glass pan than a metal one (honestly it doesn’t really shrink much at all unless I blind bake and don’t fill it well). I hope that helps!
Sofia Bernal
Hi! I wanted to know: should I grease the pie dish?
Sam
Hi Sofia! There shouldn’t be any need here. 🙂
Cobugi
This is indeed the best pie crust recipe! This is e fourth pie I make this month and all previous 3 failed, including one called “the foolproof pie crust” recipe.
I doubled this recipe for a turkey pot pie today and it’s not only a success but it’s indeed the best pie crust ever. Say what you want but I’m a fan of Pillsbury pie crust, and this surpasses it! It’s flakier and more flavorful (thank you sour cream).
Thank you SSo much for sharing this family recipe with us!
I will mention is that I had a hard time rolling it. It got too soft and I had to give up and remake it into a disc and refrigerate it and try again- and it still came out just amazing. I feel like this pie crust “melts” quite quickly, but I know practice will fix this issue.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much! It does tend to warm up rather quickly. It will be a little more difficult if it’s really warm where you are baking, but you’ll get the hang of it. 🙂
Tasha
I tried making this but I tripled the recipe. I needed it for a pumpkin pie and an apple pie for Thanksgiving. I followed all the directions and used my large food processor with the dough blade. However, the crusts crumbled and fell apart. I could barely transfer them to the pie dishes. And cooked the crusts looks horrible. It’s quite embarrassing to have to take them to my family’s Thanksgiving meal.
Sam
Hi Tasha! Unfortunately it sounds like one of the ingredients were accidentally mis-measured in the conversion 🙁
From what you describe I would guess that there was too much flour used, but if the butter or sour cream wasn’t scaled up properly that could also result in the crumbly crust. Disappointed to hear this happened for you, the good thing about this recipe is it’s very quick and easy to make if you want to give it another shot!
Amber
Hi Sam!!
I’m looking to make this crust to use in your apple turnover recipe, but i don’t have a food processor. any recommendations for a substitute?
Sam
Hi Amber! You can cut it together by hand. You can use a pastry cutter to do it. 🙂
Aurora
If you don’t have sour cream can you use plain yogurt? I want to make a pumpkin pie but don’t have sour cream. Also do you need to prebake crust for a pumpkin pie? Thanks so much.
Sam
Plain whole yogurt should work. I would refer to the pumpkin pie recipe regarding whether to prebake or not, it should indicate there and I am hesitant to recommend one way or another as recipes vary.
Pat K
Thank you for sharing your family’s amazingly easy pie crust. It is perfection. I’ll never use another again.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Pat! 🙂
Elizabeth J
Does anyone know how long this pie crust lasts in the fridge once it’s made?
Sam
Hi Elizabeth! If it is wrapped tightly it should be good for about a week. 🙂
Elizabeth
Thank you so much Sam! I can’t wait to make this later this week! I love all of the recipes I’ve made from you so far!
Sam
I think you’re going to love this one too! 🙂
Diana
I have been trying to learn to make pie crust for ages. My husband would always say he liked Pillsbury pie crust better than what I made. But this time he said he liked this one. He even asked me to use it this Thanksgiving to make his cherry pie. Thank you for sharing!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Diana! 🙂