3 Ingredient Pie Crust
A traditional all-butter pie crust only needs three simple ingredients – butter, flour and ice cold water. Add these together with a pinch of salt for a rich and flaky pie crust perfect for all your favorite pies.
Homemade pie crust can be intimidating. I get it. Especially when, like me, your comfort zone is simple family cooking. I spent years baking with pie crust from the grocery store out of fear of screwing it up. Thankfully, making the best pie crust at home is really a lot simpler than it seems. This easy 3-ingredient pie crust recipe makes a perfectly flaky crust that is totally within your reach.
There are two keys to good pie crust. The first is keeping everything super cold at every step. The second is not overworking the dough. I’m here to walk you through the easiest pie crust I know (and the only one I use), step by step. And I’m here to give you a big vote of confidence. You can totally make homemade pie crust. If the worst happens, and it doesn’t turn out exactly perfect, well just serve that pie up with a smile and a giant scoop of ice cream on top. It will still be delicious. Because honestly… pie is mostly about the filling anyway.
Use this crust to make a perfect peach pie, mini apple crumble tarts, or with any of your other favorite pie fillings!
You Will Love This
- This is a simple recipe for pie dough that can be used for savory pies or sweet pies. It’s the only homemade pie crust recipe you will ever need to master.
- This pie crust dough calls for only a handful of simple ingredients that you probably already have at home.
- Homemade pie dough takes lots of resting and chilling time, but only about 15 minutes of hands-on work. With a little planning, you can totally make homemade crust this pie season.
Ingredients
This simple pie crust has three main ingredients: all-purpose flour, unsalted butter, and ice cold water. You will also want to add a pinch of salt to give your pie crust some flavor. Exact measurements are in the recipe card below. This recipe makes a double crust pie. If you need only a bottom crust, you can halve the recipe or freeze the other crust.
Flour
We use regular all-purpose flour for this recipe. You will want to measure your flour with the “scoop and level” method. Use a spoon to scoop flour into your measuring cup. Let the flour be nice and loose and fluffy in the measuring cup. You do not want it packed in. When the flour overflows the top, use the flat back of a butter knife to level off the flour, putting the excess back into your storage container. Pour your nice fluffy leveled off cup of flour into your mixing bowl.
Unsalted Butter
It’s always good to use unsalted butter in baking, so that you can control the amount of salt in your recipe. The saltiness of salted butter varies by brand, so it is harder to get consistent results. Keep your butter in the refrigerator until right before you are ready to use it. You want it to be as cold as possible for this recipe.
Ice Water
Ice water helps our pie dough come together. I like to put a big bowl of ice water on my counter, with lots of ice still in it to keep it super cold. I then use a measuring cup to add it to the dough in small amounts.
Salt
This is technically our fourth ingredient. You will want to use a pinch of salt in your pie crust for flavor, even if you are making a sweet pie. Your pie crust won’t turn out “salty,” but this small addition will keep it from being bland. Your pie crust doesn’t technically need this ingredient to work, but it will taste so much better if you add it!!
TIP: I do not recommend replacing the salt with salted butter. I have tried making pie crust with just flour, salted butter and water, and it was too bland for my taste.
Instructions
Step One: Measure your flour into a large mixing bowl using the “scoop and level” method. Add the salt and stir to combine. Put the dry ingredients into the freezer to cool them down while you prepare the other ingredients.
Step Two: Get a large bowl, and fill it with ice and water. You will need approximately 1/2 cup of ice water for this recipe, but I like to keep a whole bowl full of water next to me so it’s easy to dip my measuring cup in and add water little by little. Just make sure to keep track of how much you are adding!
Step Three: Get your butter out of the refrigerator. You want it as cold as possible, so make sure not to take it out until right before you are going to use it. Use a sharp knife to cut the butter into small cubes.
Step Four: Remove the bowl of dry ingredients from the freezer. Add the cold butter cubes. Using a pastry cutter, mix the flour and butter together until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. If you don’t have a pastry cutter, you can use two forks to mix your flour and butter. You can also use a food processor or your hands, but see my tips on those methods below. Make sure not to over mix the butter. You want to see intact butter pieces in your pie crust because that’s what leads to yummy flaky layers. Having a few pieces of butter that are closer to marble-size than pea-size is perfectly fine.
Step Five: Slowly add ice cold water to the flour mixture, a little at a time. I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and put in a full 1/4 cup first. Use a spoon to mix that into the dough. Then, slowly add more water about 1-2 tablespoons at a time, and mix that water into the dough. When the dough starts to hold together in larger clumps, stop adding water. If you can pinch the dough and it holds together, it’s done. If it falls apart, you need a little more water. The dough will look shaggy. It should easily hold together, but should not be wet or sticky. When in doubt, use 1/2 cup of water or less in this recipe. I almost never use more than 1/2 cup.
Step Six: Dump the pie crust out onto a lightly floured surface. Put a little bit of flour on your hands, and use them to work the dough together into a ball. Don’t knead the dough or work it any more than necessary to form a ball. Cut the ball of dough into two equal pieces, and form those into small discs, again working the dough as little as possible.
Step Seven: Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to cool for at least two hours, and up to 3 days. This cooling step is crucial, so please don’t skip it. If you put a warm pie crust in the oven, it will turn greasy and tough. A cold pie crust will be flaky and tender.
Step Eight: When your pie crust has cooled for the necessary time, remove one disc from the refrigerator (leave the other one in there until just before you are ready for it). Lightly flour your work surface, hands, and rolling pin. Unwrap the dough, and use the rolling pin to roll it into a thin circle. To roll the dough, use even pressure starting at the middle of the disc of dough and pressing outwards. Rotate the dough on your work surface occasionally as you roll it out to get a nice even thin circle. You will want to roll out your pie dough to about a 12-inch circle for a 9-inch pie plate.
TIP: If the edges of your dough start to crack, use a little bit of water on your fingertips to help smooth the cracks back together. Don’t worry about little imperfections in the shape of the pie crust. You can always trim a small amount of dough off the edge with a pair of kitchen shears for a perfectly smooth circle.
Step Nine: Put your bottom crust in your pie pan. Fold the overhanging edge under to form a thicker rim of crust around the outside of the pie – you can use this to make a pretty fluted edge to your crust, or you can crimp it with the tines of a fork after adding your filling and top crust. Put the pie dish in the refrigerator while you roll out the top pie crust. When both pie crusts are done, proceed with your pie recipe!
Optional: Make an egg wash from 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon of water or milk. Use the egg wash on the top crust after assembly to help it reach a nice golden brown. You can also sprinkle a little coarse sugar on top for a pretty sparkle.
Final Safety Tip: Be cautious about putting glass pie plates directly from a cold refrigerator into a hot oven. Some glass plates cannot withstand that temperature change and could crack. We want the pie crust to be as cold as possible before baking, but we DO NOT want your awesome homemade pie all over the bottom of your oven! If you have your glass pie plate in the refrigerator prior to baking, I suggest letting the glass come up to room temperature before putting it in the oven.
FAQs
Yes! I often make pie crust in the food processor. However, you want to be very careful not to overwork the dough. You really only need a few pulses in the food processor to mix the butter and flour together, and then another few pulses to mix in the water.
Only if you promise to be super fast! Your hands give off heat, so you don’t want to work the dough with your hands too much or you may start to melt the butter. Firs, toss the butter pieces with the flour so that each butter piece is coated. This will make your job easier and keep your hands from getting greasy. Quickly work the flour-coated butter pieces between your hands to break them into smaller pieces. Try to get it all done in less than a minute or so!
If you added just a little bit too much water, you can add a little bit more flour to dry the dough out enough to work with. If you way overdid it, you may be best off by just starting over. If you added a lot of extra water, and fix it by adding a lot of extra flour, the pie crust flour to fat (butter) ratio will be off. This could mean a pie crust that is tough or flavorless.
If your pie crust is sticking to the counter when you are trying to roll it out, here are a couple tips. First, make sure your pie crust is cold and has rested for at least 2 hours. Warm pie crust = warm butter = sticky. Cold surfaces (like a stone countertop) work great for rolling out pie dough. Second, put a thin layer of flour over your work surface and your rolling pin. Everything that touches the dough should be floured. Third, rotate your pie crust as you roll it out and flip it over to the other side once or twice, adding more flour to the work surface as needed. Lastly, you can try rolling out your dough between two sheets of wax paper or parchment paper (one on top and one on bottom).
3 Ingredient Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup ice-cold water
Instructions
- Measure your flour into a large mixing bowl using the "scoop and level" method. Add the salt and stir to combine. Put the dry ingredients into the freezer to cool them down while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Get a large bowl, and fill it with ice and water. You will need approximately 1/2 cup of ice water for this recipe, but I like to keep a whole bowl full of water next to me so it's easy to dip my measuring cup in and add water little by little. Just make sure to keep track of how much you are adding!
- Get your butter out of the refrigerator. You want it as cold as possible, so make sure not to take it out until right before you are going to use it. Use a sharp knife to cut the butter into small cubes.
- Remove the bowl of dry ingredients from the freezer. Add the cold butter cubes. Using a pastry cutter, mix the flour and butter together until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. Make sure not to over mix the butter. You want to see intact butter pieces in your pie crust because that's what leads to yummy flaky layers. Having a few pieces of butter that are closer to marble-size than pea-size is perfectly fine.
- Slowly add ice cold water to the flour mixture, a little at a time. I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and put in a full 1/4 cup first. Use a spoon to mix that into the dough. Then, slowly add more water about 1-2 tablespoons at a time, and mix that water into the dough. When the dough starts to hold together in larger clumps, stop adding water. If you can pinch the dough and it holds together, it's done. If it falls apart, you need a little more water. The dough will look shaggy. It should easily hold together, but should not be wet or sticky.
- Dump the pie crust out onto a lightly floured surface. Put a little bit of flour on your hands, and use them to work the dough together into a ball. Don't knead the dough or work it any more than necessary to form a ball. Cut the ball of dough into two equal pieces, and form those into small discs, again working the dough as little as possible.
- Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to cool for at least two hours, and up to 3 days.
- When your pie crust has cooled for the necessary time, remove one disc from the refrigerator (leave the other one in there until just before you are ready for it). Lightly flour your work surface, hands, and rolling pin. Unwrap the dough, and use the rolling pin to roll it into a thin circle. To roll the dough, use even pressure starting at the middle of the disc of dough and pressing outwards. Rotate the dough on your work surface occasionally as you roll it out to get a nice even thin circle. You will want to roll out your pie dough to about a 12-inch circle for a 9-inch pie plate.
- Put your bottom crust in your pie pan. Fold the overhanging edge under to form a thicker rim of crust around the outside of the pie – you can use this to make a pretty fluted edge to your crust, or you can crimp it with the tines of a fork after adding your filling and top crust. Put the pie dish in the refrigerator while you roll out the top pie crust. When both pie crusts are done, proceed with your pie recipe!
Notes
- Keep the ingredients super cold at every step.
- Work the dough as little as possible to get it to come together. You should see pea-sized dots of butter throughout your crust at the end.
- You must let the pie crust rest at least two hours before rolling it out. Don’t skip it!
- Make an egg wash from 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon of water or milk. Use the egg wash on the top crust after assembly to help it reach a nice golden brown. You can also sprinkle a little coarse sugar on top for a pretty sparkle.
- Be cautious about putting glass pie plates directly from a cold refrigerator into a hot oven. Some glass plates cannot withstand that temperature change and could crack. We want the pie crust to be as cold as possible before baking, but we DO NOT want your awesome homemade pie all over the bottom of your oven! If you have your glass pie plate in the refrigerator prior to baking, I suggest letting the glass come up to room temperature before putting it in the oven.
