This is the only Pie Crust Recipe you’ll ever need! Buttery, flaky, and foolproof, my easy homemade recipe is perfect every single time, thanks to a key secret ingredient. This recipe comes together quickly in the food processor, so you can have a perfect pie dough chilling in your refrigerator in a matter of minutes. Watch the how-to video for step-by-step instructions!
The Easiest Pie Crust You’ll Ever Make
We have officially entered into pie season, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Apple pie is of course one of my favorites, but I’ll pretty much take a piece of whatever’s being served, especially if it’s made with my homemade pie crust.
I originally published this recipe several years ago, and since then I’ve always felt I needed just a tad more dough, especially if I wanted to do a decorative edge. To solve this, I’ve slightly scaled up the recipe so there’s plenty of dough to work with. It’s still the same easy, foolproof pie crust recipe that you’ve all loved over these past few years, but now there’s just more of it!
My simple pie dough works perfectly for blind baked pies (more on that coming soon!), and it can easily be doubled for two-crust pies or a lattice pie crust. Preparing the dough is a breeze, thanks to the help of a food processor, and it bakes up to be extra flaky and tender, extra buttery and extra flavorful.
All that “extra” comes from a surprising secret ingredient…more on that below.
What You Need
You don’t need anything fancy or complicated to make my homemade pie crust recipe–just five common ingredients you probably already have:
- Flour. Use all-purpose flour, and make sure you’re measuring your flour properly, or you may end up with a dry, crumbly crust.
- Sugar. The small bit of sugar in this recipe can be eliminated, but I like that it adds a subtle flavor to the end result.
- Salt. Just a little salt flavors this homemade pie crust without making it salty.
- Butter. Your butter should be very cold when you drop it into your dry ingredients. You can pop it in the freezer for a few minutes before you are ready to start making your crust to make sure it’s cold enough. Use unsalted butter since we are adding salt ourselves.
- Sour cream. Yep, sour cream! Sour cream is the secret ingredient in my pie crust recipe. Using sour cream takes a lot of the guesswork out of this recipe and there’s no fussing with various amounts of ice water. It gives this homemade pie crust a lovely depth of flavor that is not overwhelming or obvious, but does add an extra special subtle touch to the finished product. Mostly, though, I just love it because it makes this recipe so easy! If you don’t have sour cream, full-fat Greek yogurt will also work, but try to use sour cream if you can!
SAM’S TIP: That’s right, you don’t need ice water to make my pie crust recipe! I use an exact amount of sour cream instead. No more guessing how much ice water to use or worrying if your water is cold enough.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Homemade Pie Crust
- Pulse dry ingredients together in the bowl of a food processor. Add cubed cold butter and pulse a few times until your mixture is combined and resembles coarse crumbs, but note that you should still have distinguishable pieces of butter remaining in the food processor, aim for chocolate-chip-sized bits!
- Add sour cream, and pulse a few more times until mixture is still crumbly but beginning to cling together.
- Transfer dough onto a clean surface and gently, quickly work into a ball before flattening into a disk. Wrap disk in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 45-60 minutes.
- Remove dough from fridge and roll out to a 12″ circle. Arrange in pie plate and crimp/flute the edges before blind baking or filling.
SAM’S TIP: Making a pumpkin pie or a chocolate pie? You’ll need a blind-baked crust! While I share some notes on blind-baking in this recipe, I will be sharing an entire post dedicated to blind-baking very soon. Stay tuned!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a pastry blender, knife, or a grater to cut your butter into your dough.
I highly recommend investing in a food processor though–it will make your baking so much easier and less messy!
Yes! Just make sure your pie dough is tightly wrapped before freezing. It will keep for several months in the freezer. When you’re ready, let it thaw overnight in the fridge before using.
I know it seems like an unusual pastry ingredient, but I’ve found that sour cream yields an exceptionally tender, flaky crust. Plus, using sour cream means this pie crust recipe is much easier and less fussy to make than many traditional recipes. Worried about the flavor? Don’t! Sour cream adds flavor without making your crust taste like sour cream.
If you don’t have sour cream, you can use full-fat Greek yogurt. But I highly suggest using sour cream.
Enjoy!
More Recipes You Might Like
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Truly the BEST Pie Crust Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (156g)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter very cold and cubed (113g)
- ¼ cup sour cream (60g)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine flour, sugar, and salt in the canister of a food processor and pulse briefly to combine.
- Scatter butter pieces over the top of the flour mixture and pulse again until butter is mostly combined and mixture resembles coarse crumbs (there should still be discernible pieces of butter remaining in the mixture, some as large as a chocolate chip).
- Add sour cream and pulse again until mixture just begins to cling together. The mixture may still seem dry, but if you pinch it between your thumb and forefinger and it clings together, you’re ready to move on!
- Transfer dough to a clean surface and work into a ball (try not to over-handle the dough, you want it to stay as cold as possible to keep the butter from melting and your hands are very warm!). Flatten into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and transfer to refrigerator to chill for at least 45-60 minutes before proceeding/using as desired.
- If arranging into a pie plate, remove the dough from the refrigerator once it has chilled and transfer to a clean, lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll into a 12” circle (add flour as needed and be sure to lift the pie dough and add flour beneath it while rolling to keep from sticking, if needed) and arrange into a pie plate, crimping or fluting the edges.
- Use according to your pie filling recipe’s instructions, or see notes below to blind bake (bake an empty pie shell).
Notes
Sour cream:
Full-fat sour cream is your best bet for this recipe, but in a pinch you could substitute full-fat plain Greek yogurt.Making without a food processor:
I highly recommend a food processor for this recipe, it makes quick work out of the dough without being an arm workout! However, if you do not have a food processor you may use a pastry cutter, grater, or even a knife to cut the butter into the flour mixture before stirring in the sour cream.Blind baking:
To blind bake this pie crust (that is, bake it completely without any filling so it can be cooled and filled with a filling that does not need to be baked), allow the pie dough to chill for at least 45 minutes as instructed. Roll out and arrange in your pie plate, then place it in the freezer for at least 20 minutes while you preheat your oven to 375F. Once oven is preheated, line crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Place on a baking sheet and transfer to 375F oven to bake for 15 minutes, carefully remove from oven and remove parchment and pie weights, then return to the oven and continue to bake until beginning to turn golden brown, about 10 additional minutes.Making in advance:
This pie dough may be made up to 5 days in advance of rolling out and using. Store tightly wrapped in the refrigerator. If chilling for this long, you will likely need to let the dough soften on the counter at room temperature for 15 minutes or possibly longer to make it soft enough to roll without cracking.Freezing:
This pie dough may be frozen and will keep for several months in the freezer if tightly wrapped. To use, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then use as desired.Recipe Note:
I originally published this recipe several years ago, but since then I’ve come to feel that it would be nice to have just a tad more dough, especially if I wanted to do a decorative edge. To solve this I’ve slightly scaled up the recipe so that you have plenty to work with. Essentially, the recipe is unchanged, I’ve just scaled each of the ingredients up a bit proportionately so there’s more pie dough!Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Sandra Eaton
great instructions, pie crust is great I will use this crust often,
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for your comment, Sandra! We’re so happy you liked the crust 😊