Easy Deep Dish Pie Crust Recipe: Using Butter or Lard

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This homemade pie dough is buttery, flaky and easy to make using a food processor and four simple ingredients! Perfect for sweet and savory pies, pop-tarts, quiche and more!

Homemade pie crust can be made with butter, vegetable shortening or lard. I prefer butter or lard to create the perfect pie crust for all pie recipes. 

Why You’ll Love This Recipe:

This recipe makes enough dough for two deep dish pie crusts or enough for one double crust pie.

This recipe requires no special equipment like a pastry cutter or a pastry blender. The entire recipe is made in the bowl of a food processor!

If you only need a single pie crust and have excess dough consider wrapping it in plastic wrap and storing in the freezer. 

Why This Will be Your New Go-to Pie Crust Recipe:

This delicious pie crust is perfect for anything you can make with pie crust: savory or sweet!

Use this easy recipe to get ahead this holiday season! Make several pie crusts up at once and store them in the freezer to pop out anytime you need it. 

Batch making pie crusts for Thanksgiving saves a lot of time and is a simple step to take to reduce stress the holidays. I love making up several pie crusts in early fall for Thanksgiving pies later! 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this pie crust dough is perfect for making old fashioned chocolate fudge pie, roasted Cushaw squash pie, and apple butter pumpkin pie! 

Need a savory pie option? Butter pie crust makes the perfect amount of dough for a deep dish chicken pot pie. 

This pie crust can even make for easy breakfast prep. Use this flavorful crust for quiches and pop-tarts too!

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This is the best pie crust recipe for any pie dish on your list! 

What You Need:

• Large bowl
• Food Processor
• Rolling Pin
• Pie Pan
• Optional:
• Pie Weights (for blind baking pie crusts to achieve a flaky bottom crust)

Ingredients:

• all purpose flour
• salt
• ice-cold unsalted butter (or lard)
• ice-cold water
  Optional:
• Egg (to egg wash for a golden brown color)

How to Make the Best Flaky Pie Crust Recipe:

In the bowl of a food processor add the dry ingredients: all purpose flour and salt. Pulse together just enough to equally distribute the salt. 

Add in cubed ice-cold butter. Do not use warm or room temperature butter or water. 

Pulse the flour mixture with cubed unsalted butter until it is the texture of coarse meal or until the mixture resembles the size of small peas. 

Add just enough water to create a soft dough. Slowly sprinkle ice water into the bowl of the food processor and pulse until a dough forms. 

Pop the dough in the fridge to chill for a few minutes until cold before rolling out the dough. If you are planning to save the dough for later wrap it in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for up to a week or wrap tightly in plastic wrap or parchment paper and store in a freezer safe ziplock bag for up to 3 months. 

Be Sure to Keep the Pie Dough Chilled While You’re Working:

When working with pastry dough it is important to keep the dough chilled. If you use warm or room temperature butter you won’t get little solid chunks of butter throughout your pie dough that gives it the classic flaky texture when baked. If at any point you feel your dough is getting too warm, just pop it in the fridge to re-chill it before moving on. 

If you are making several homemade pies at once and need to make several pie crusts, I recommend immediately transferring the dough to a ziplock in the fridge in between batches to keep all the unbaked pie crust chilled. Then pull the pie crusts out one a time to shape and roll out the dough before moving on to the next one. 

​Shaping the Dough:

Transfer dough to a floured work surface to roll dough out.

Using a knife or bench scraper split the dough in half and shape into a circle. The two pieces will make your top crust and the bottom crust if making a double-crust pie. 

Working with one at a time, shape the dough using a rolling pin to roll it out in a circle. 

I like to roll my dough out on a silicone pastry mat so I can be sure to get the size I want. Turn the dough a quarter turn each time you roll and work in a circle to roll out evenly. 

Using your rolling pin to roll up the dough, transfer the dough to a pie pan. Center the dough in the pan and using your hands, press the dough around the sides of the dish. Trim off the excess dough or get creative with a flute edge. To make a fluted edge, use your hands to shape the edge of your pie crust by using your thumb and pointer finger to shape dough around your knuckle as you move along the side of the pie pan. 

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How to Store Pie Crusts for Later After Rolling Out and Shaping the Dough:

You can also store pre-shaped pie crusts by placing the dough on parchment paper and rolling it up. Store the rolled up pie crusts in a ziplock bag in the fridge or freezer, just like store bought pie dough. 

Alternatively, shape dough in aluminum pie pans to create a pre-made pie shell, a perfect time saver for last minute desserts. 

Last Minute Dessert Tip:

​I like to open a can of homemade apple pie filling and pour it into a blind baked pie shell for an easy last minute dessert.

Pull a premade pie shell from the freezer and place parchment paper on top and fill with dry beans or pie weights and blind bake until crust is just firm but not cooked through. 

For a double crust apple pie, pull another pre-rolled pie crust from the freezer and let it thaw while blind baking the bottom crust. Remove pie weights from the baked pie shell and pour in your pie filling and top with the second thawed out pie crust.

Poke holes in the top of the pie crust and bake as usual. I love using this hack to serve my family or guests the best apple pie with ice cream for dessert without dirtying up the kitchen. No stress baking is the best way to bake!

Full Video With Step by Step Process and More Thanksgiving Prep:

More Recipes You May Like:

Thanksgiving Better Than Stove Top Dressing Muffins

Soft Sourdough Discard Ginger Cookies

The Best Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

Printable Recipe:

 

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