The Best Pie Dough for A Flaky Pie Crust (+VIDEO)

Follow some simple steps and make the best pie dough for a perfectly flaky crust. It gently flakes in your mouth! It is everything I use for all types of sweet and savory pies from apple hand pies to classic quiche.

In this post, you'll learn some baking skills such as this:

• Key tips to make your pie dough very flaky
• How to make pie dough with both a food processor and hands.
• How to wrap your dough so that you can roll easier later

... and so on!

Jump to:

• 📌 What makes pie dough so flaky?
• 📌 Frequently asked questions
• 📌 Learn how to make it visually!
• 📌 6 Ingredients to make flaky pie crust
• 📌 How to make pie dough
• 📌 Step 1: Add flour, sugar, salt, and butter to a food processor and pulse until the butter is cut into very tiny pieces.
• 📌 Step 2: Add water and oil and mix until it forms a ball.
• 📌 Step 3: Wrap a pie dough and chill it in a fridge for 30 minutes to a few hours or more.
• 📌 How to enjoy this pie dough
• 📌 The Printable Recipe
• The Best Pie Dough For A Flaky Pie Crust

📌 What makes pie dough so flaky?

The simple answer is pieces of butter in the dough.

💡 The tiny pieces of butter in the pie dough melt in the oven and creates hollows which lead to layers of crust.

On contrary, when your butter is soft, it gets pasted into the flour. You will not get the same flaky texture with this.

💬 So, the key focus is to keep the pieces of butter cold as you mix the dough to make a flaky pie crust.

📌 Frequently asked questions

📌 Learn how to make it visually!

Check out this video to see how you can make this pie dough using a food processor. * I added shredded cheddar to it but everything else is the same.

And check out this video to see how you can make it by hand.

📌 6 Ingredients to make flaky pie crust

• All-purpose flour: 375g | 13.2oz (2.5 US cups)

• Granulated sugar: 1 Tbsp
  • It is not a must but a small amount is added today to add a slight sweetness.

• Salt: ½ tsp

• Unsalted butter: 226g | 8oz (2 US sticks)

• Ice water: 120g | 4.2oz (½ cup)
  • The cold ice helps to keep the butter cold.
  • Plus, add up to 2 more teaspoons if you need to. 

• Oil: 2 Tbsp
  • Today, I used olive oil but you can use any other regular oils

👩🏻‍🍳 It is a secret ingredient to make the pie crust. By adding oil, less gluten gets created which makes the crust feel lighter. The key is not to add too much.

📌 How to make pie dough

Preparation

• Add ice to the water to create very cold water.

The 3 simple steps:

1. Add flour, sugar, salt, and butter to a food processor and pulse until the butter is cut into very tiny pieces.
2. Add water and oil and mix until it forms a ball.
3. Wrap a pie dough and chill it in a fridge for 30 minutes to a few hours or more.

📍 The printable recipe with instructions is at the very end of this post.

Jump to Recipe

Check out below to see the steps with more detailed tips and images👇🏻

---

📌 Step 1: Add flour, sugar, salt, and butter to a food processor and pulse until the butter is cut into very tiny pieces.

Use very cold butter and cut it into pieces.

Pulse.

💬 The butter should be the size of apple seeds or whole peppers. Check with your hands and squish if you find some big pieces.

💡 Once you cut butter too much, you can not fix it. Check the size when you are not sure and pulse little by little, especially toward the end.

---

When you do it by hand:

If you don't have a food processor, no worry! You can still make it by hand. You can use a dough blender to cut butter faster than a knife.

👩🏻‍🍳 But it still takes a lot more time with the blender than with a food processor. I recommend cutting your butter into very small pieces in advance and freezing or chilling it in a fridge until right before you use it so that the butter is not getting soft while you are cutting it!

---

📌 Step 2: Add water and oil and mix until it forms a ball.

When you mix them, follow the 2 steps:

1. Rub the surface and flip and repeat it until you see that the liquids are spread evenly in the flour.

2. Press well by hand all over the surface and flip. Repeat it until it forms a ball.
   • It'll look very powdery at the beginning but slowly come together as you repeat this process.

(Add up to 2 more teaspoons of cold water if you need to.)

🙅🏻‍♀️ Do not add any more water than that since more water creates more glutens which makes the crust extra crunchy.

How to judge if it's done:

• It still looks slightly powdery but comes together.
• Stop before it starts getting sticky. (That means the butter is melted partially.)

💬 This recipe is enough to make 1 10-inch pie with a double crust or 2 10-inch pies with a single crust.

---

📌 Step 3: Wrap a pie dough and chill it in a fridge for 30 minutes to a few hours or more.

When the dough is just made, it is too soft to roll. And also, the gluten in flour needs to rest so that you can roll easier.

How to wrap and chill the pie dough

1. Roll it over the plastic wrap to make a round or square shape with even thickness.
   • By doing this, it'll be easier to roll the dough evenly later.

2. Pinch all around the edge and smooth it out by spinning it by hand.
   • By doing it, the edge is going to crack less as you roll the dough later.

📌 How to enjoy this pie dough

This is the only pie dough I use for all kinds of pies - from desserts to savory food.

Last year on Thanksgiving, we had bacon & spinach quiches, chocolate pecan pies, apple crumbles, and a big caramel rum apple pie, all made from this one dough.

Also, try my easy apple hand pies using this pie dough. It's so simple to make yet so delicious!

If you tried the recipe and enjoyed it, please share your feedback. I'd love to hear how you enjoyed it at home!

📌 The Printable Recipe

Go back to the top of this post.