Easy Pie Crust Recipe
by Sommer Collier — last updated on May 28, 2025 
This easy recipe shows you step-by-step how to make a flaky, buttery pie crust from scratch with simple pantry staples, including our secret ingredient. You’ll agree it’s the best homemade pie dough recipe for making all kinds of sweet and savory pies!
Yes, Pie Dough is Actually Easy to Make
While a good pie crust isn’t fast to make from scratch, you will be amazed at what a basic recipe it is. So grab a food processor and check out my Top Tips for the most foolproof pie dough, every time!
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
Quick and easy recipes are my jam, especially for busy weeknights. But when I do have the time, I love to make recipes that are a bit more time-consuming (while still being relatively simple). Especially when it comes to baking, some extra time allows you to put in a ‘lil extra love!
Why You’ll Love This Perfect Pie Crust Recipe
- Just a Bit of Booze – My secret ingredient for the best pie crust recipe is adding a couple of tablespoons of amaretto, rum, brandy, or cognac. It makes the dough amazingly flaky and flavorful!
- Practically Effortless – I make the dough in a food processor vs cutting in cold butter by hand with a pastry cutter. Easy peasy!
- Make and Freeze – This recipe makes 2 pie crusts. So you can make a double pie with bottom and top, or use just one crust now and keep the other ready in the freezer.
Time to shake off any feelings of intimidation and make a tender pie crust with flaky layers that will impress!
Ingredients and Tips
- Dry Ingredients – You need simple kitchen staples, including all-purpose flour, salt, and sugar.
- Butter – Use unsalted butter that’s super cold.
- Shortening – Like Crisco, shortening has more fat to make the flakiest crust
- Alcohol – The alcohol cooks out, leaving an essence of rum, amaretto, or Brandy. However, if you’d prefer to leave out the alcohol, just substitute with additional milk or cold water.
- Milk – Whole or 2% milk is fine.
Note: If baking for a double blind, you also need pie weights or a hefty amount of dried beans.
How to Make the Perfect Pie Crust
Blind Baking Tip: If baking a pie crust for a cream pie, make sure to line the interior of the pie crust with ceramic pie weights or dried beans! I always keep a bag of dried beans in the pantry for just such an occasion. This holds the crust in place while it’s baking so it doesn’t slump or bubble.
Par-Baking Tip: Most fruit-filled and savory pie recipes call for partially baked crusts, i.e. par-baking. Then, the filling is added and finished baking in the pie altogether. When partially baking, follow the same procedure with parchment paper and high weights.
Find the full Easy Pie Crust recipe with detailed instructions, storage tips, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post!
Top Recipe Tips for Making Pie Crust from Scratch
- Cold dough = flaky tender crust, and easy moving – use cold butter, cold shortening, and chill again before baking if needed. Cold dough equals perfect piecrusts.
- When mixing the piecrust in a food processor or with a pastry blender, it’s important to leave some cold pea-sized pieces of butter and shortening. These clumps ensures the layers are nice and flaky.
- Roll the dough out on a piece of wax paper or a nonstick pastry mat for easy moving to the pie pan.
- Take your time to push the crust down into the pan. You want it to be completely touching every surface of the pie plate so it doesn’t stretch or sag while baking.
- Be patient, don’t be in a rush to get the crust in the oven. It needs time to chill before baking.
- We always recommend baking pies on the lowest oven rack to ensure the bottom of the piecrust is close to the heat source. This is especially important when baking a filled pie with wet ingredients.
- If the edges of the pie crust start getting too dark, cover them with strips of foil and continue baking.
The Best Recipes to Make with Homemade Pie Crust
Pie dough that’s blind baked is perfect to make all kinds of fluffy and luscious cream pies! Here are a few of our favorite recipes:
- Strawberry Cream Pie
- Banana Cream Pie
- Lemon Cream Pie
- Fluffy Pumpkin Cream Pie
- Coconut Cream Pie
- Cinnamon Pie with Whipped Cream
- French Silk Pie
There is no limit to the different types of baked pies you can make with this guide! From fruit pies to creamy baked pies, you’ll love these classic recipes – which include step-by-step instructions how to make a lattice topping with the pie crust:
- Cherry Pie (this is the filling we’ve used in the recipe photos here)
- Fluffernutter Pie
- Fresh Peach Pie
- Mango Pie
- Apple Raspberry Pie
- Libby’s Pumpkin Pie
- Southern Sweet Potato Pie
- Dutch Apple Pie
You can even make savory pie recipes, too! Use the recipe as a starting point for these dishes that are always a hit:
- Vegetarian Pot Pie
- Skillet Turkey Pot Pie (or Chicken Pot Pie!)
- Tomato Galette
FAQ
Use both! Butter for flavor and flakiness, and shortening (Crisco) for flexibility and shape.
A butter pie crust has incredible flavor and flakiness but can be very hard to shape. They also are more likely to slump while baking.
For no-fail pie crusts, it’s essential you use super cold butter and don’t overwork the dough. These two tips will practically guarantee the crust has plenty of buttery and flaky layers!
It depends… The crust can be baked raw with filling, partially baked, or fully baked with pie weights for no-bake cream pies. If you are making a fruit pie, or making a crust for cream pies, the dough needs to be at least partially baked first. Otherwise the dough will still be raw when the filling is completely baked.
No, there’s no need to prick the crust with a fork before baking. Using pie weights or beans will keep the dough from bubbling up as it bakes.
Dough wrapped in plastic wrap will keep well in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
Homemade pie dough is great to make ahead and freeze! Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the fridge overnight to soften.
Easy Pie Crust Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled and cut into cubes
- 6 tablespoons shortening chilled and cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons amaretto rum, brandy, cognac…
- 2-3 tablespoons cold milk
Instructions
- Place the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix. Add the COLD butter and shortening cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles peas.
- Add the amaretto and 1 tablespoon of cold milk. Pulse again until the dough comes together. Add another 1-2 tablespoons of milk if needed. Dump the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Separate into two equal pieces and flatten into two disks.
- Wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until ready to use.
If Baking with Pie Weights
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Set out a silicone rolling mat (or piece of parchment paper) and place the cold dough on the mat. Roll the dough into a large even circle, 12 to 13 inches across. Carefully flip and fit the pie crust into a pie pan. Make sure the bottom edges are fully covered, with no gapping betweentthe dough and the baking dish. Crimp the edges.
- Then place a piece of parchment paper in the crust. Fill with pie weights and bake for 18-20 minutes.
I’ve always been intimidated by homemade crusts, but this was truly easy and delicious. Thank you for such a reliable recipe!
The instructions were super clear and helpful. My crust was golden, buttery, and perfect with both sweet and savory fillings!
This pie crust turned out better than any store-bought version! So flaky and flavorful—I’ll never go back!