Easy Flaky Pie Crust Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is pie crust better with butter or Crisco? ›

“My preferred fat for pie crusts will always be butter. To me, it is all about flavor, and no other fat gives flavor to a crust like butter does. Other fats, even though they have great pros, lack flavor,” De Sa Martins said. “The more flavorful the butter, the more flavor your pie crust will have,” Huntsberger added.

Pie Crust Ingredients

Flour: This flaky pie crust recipe starts with all-purpose flour. Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the flavor and promotes a tender, moist crust. Butter: Cold butter adds rich flavor and creates steam as it melts, ensuring a perfectly flaky finished product.

Vegetable Shortening

As shortening is able to withstand higher temperatures and does not melt easily, it creates flaky and crisp yet tender pie crusts when used alone or in combination with butter.

The acid in the apple cider vinegar tenderizes the dough by slowing the gluten production in the dough. This prevents it from getting tough and elastic like bread dough. Love me tender. If you've ever bitten into a slice of pie with a tough crust, you know the value in a tender, flaky pie crust.

The 11% gluten found in all-purpose flour yields the perfect tenderness in a crust. A little acid goes a long way: Add a little acid to your dough. Whether it be fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, acid retards gluten development. One teaspoon will do the job, and it can replace some of the water you add.

When there is too much fat in the pie crust, it crumbles. There isn't enough flour to form the flakes, so the extra fat just melts as it bakes and the pie crust falls apart as you cut into it. Baking is a precise art; you must measure the flour, salt, fat and water carefully or your pie crust won't turn out well.

The cons: Butter can be harder to work with than lard or shortening because of its lower melting point, so the dough temperature has to be just right. If it gets too warm, it will be too soft to handle and will tear easily. Butter is a firmer fat, so if it's too cold, your dough will be more difficult to roll out.

One universal truth when making crusts is that you need to keep everything cool, particularly the butter. Warm butter will be absorbed by the flour instead of coating it, resulting in a tougher, less flaky crust. Once you take the butter out of the fridge, work quickly to make the pie crust.

Butter made a tastier, flakier, sturdier crust by far. This isn't to say that shortening and lard aren't useful ingredients. Shortening is a great way to get incredibly tender desserts. It's part of what makes these pumpkin whoopie pies so delectable.

Pastries are typically characterized by their flaky or crumbly texture and come in a variety of different shapes and sizes. All pastries are made from six main types of pastry dough: shortcrust, flaky, puff, filo, choux, and hot water crust. The dough typically consists of flour, fat, and water.

Is pie crust better with lard or Crisco? ›

Choosing between shortening and lard comes down to personal preference. Both create a flaky, tender crust, are semi-solid, and are 100% fat. Swap one for the other in recipes. If you want to add additional flavor to the dish, lard is the right choice.

You can swap out any solid fat for another when making pie crust. The colder and more solid your fat is, the easier it is to make your crust. I have used lard, shortening, butter, margarine, even bacon grease, to make pie crust, and they all work just fine.

Shortening gives you better flakes because it melts so slowly that the dough surrounding the piece of shortening has more time to cook before the fat melts. This leaves you with bigger pockets or flakes in your pie dough. Butter gives you flavor and tenderness, shortening gives you flakes.

What kind of flour makes the best pie crust? Well, not high-protein bread flour! Use that for your chewy bagels. What you want for pie is flour that yields a tender, flaky crust, which means medium-protein all-purpose flour or low-protein pastry flour.