Easy, Homemade Pie Crust

This easy, homemade pie crust is flaky and tender. For any type of pie, sweet or savory, this pie crust recipe is sure to please. It’s a recipe from my grandmother with my own special tweak.

It seems almost everyone has a pie crust recipe that’s “The easiest, best crust ever.”  I don’t know about you, but making a homemade pie crust was always an unsuccessful chore for me.

I bought the “unroll” in the pan kind until we cut out all processed foods and GMOs from our home. Buying these wasn’t an option anymore.

After doing without pies for a few months, I decided to try making my own pie crust again. It was essential that I figure out an easy delicious recipe for pie crust because I needed a chocolate pie!  I tried so many recipes I can’t even remember.

Let’s just say my family wasn’t too happy about my “trial and error.” During this tweaking process, they had to eat, or not eat, several pies. With some of them, they could only eat the filling because the crust was so thick or the crust was too hard.  They ate pies where the crust fell apart under the pie when you cut it and pies you couldn’t cut the crust out of the pan.

After failing with so many recipes I had found online, I had one of those “duh” moments and went back to the basic pie crust recipe from my grandmother. No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t get it flaky like hers. She is one of, if not the best cook I’ve ever known. Her pies were always the first to go and most requested at any family or church function.

I really think her success was partly due to the lard she used. But like most from-scratch cooks, she didn’t use a recipe, she just cooked. When you asked her to write it down she just couldn’t remember all her tricks or what she used because she often improvised and made do. Real cooks do that.

I know my great-grandmother and my grandmother wouldn’t be upset about my “improvising” with their recipe to make it my own. So I did. After all, every generation brings its own solutions, ideas, and difficulties to the table.

The ingredient that changed everything for me was one they had on hand and used, maybe even for pie crusts? I’ll never know. All’s well that ends well though because, after a great deal of experimenting and many failures, I found the ingredient that brought me success! It’s raw, organic apple cider vinegar!

Yep, who knew! I use it for so many things around the house already that I really should have thought of it before. If we don’t have fresh buttermilk, I use it to make my own by adding 3-4 teaspoons to a cup of fresh milk. You can also do this with store-bought whole milk.

Now we enjoy delicious, homemade pie crusts with all of our favorite recipes. Today, I want to share the recipe with you.

Now if you’ve followed me at all, you know that all of my ingredients are organic and/or non-GMO. If you don’t subscribe to that way of eating that’s fine, the recipe will work with your ingredients.  If you haven’t had a crust made with organic, non-GMO ingredients, you won’t miss a thing.

Easy, Homemade Pie Crust

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon real salt

3 Tablespoons solid coconut oil

3 Tablespoons solid unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon raw organic apple cider vinegar

3 Tablespoons cold water

Preparing the crust:

1. In medium bowl, mix flour and salt together
2. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter and coconut oil until the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs. If you use a mixer or food processor, be sure not to over process
3. Add the apple cider vinegar and mix in thoroughly. Now carefully add the water 1 tablespoon at a time until a ball of dough forms – you don’t want it to be sticky.
4. Set the dough ball in the refrigerator fo 15 minutes. This allows the butter to rechill.
5. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a generously floured surface until it’s a few inches larger than your pie plate – 4-5 inches larger is a good goal. You may have to flip the crust to re-flour your surface and the crust to prevent it sticking to the surface and your rolling pin.
6. Once you have your pie crust rolled out, lightly flour the top of it and carefully roll it up, loosely, or fold it into quarters. Then gently lift it and unroll it into your pie plate.
7. Gently flute (fold the excess dough under itself) even with the pan. Now you can crimp the edges with your fingers or use a fork to mark the edge.

Single Crust for Filled Pie

If you want a crust for a pie filling that doesn’t have to be baked, like Ma Horton’s Velvety Chocolate Pie, you’re now ready to bake the crust.

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. While the oven is heating, prick the bottom and sides of your crust generously with a fork (see the last photo above). This will prevent the crust from rising in the middle, causing peaks and valleys in your crust.
3. Bake the pie crust for 10 minutes, until your crust is golden brown or to your desired brownness.

Single Crust For Baked Filled Pie

If you want a pie crust for a pie that will be filled and then baked, like Old-Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie,

1. Follow steps 1-7 then set the pie crust in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
2. When the filling is done, remove the pie crust from the fridge and pour into the pie pan.
3. Bake as directed in your recipe.

Double Crust Pie

Simply, double the recipe.

1. Follow steps 1-4 above then,
2. Divide the dough in half and roll out each crust as above in steps 5-7.
3. Put both crusts in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
4. When the filling is ready, remove the crusts from the fridge, fill, place top crust on and vent.
5. Proceed according to the recipe.

Now that you know how to make an easy, homemade pie crust, on your mark, get set, Bake!