American Pie Crust Tutorial
This American Pie Crust Tutorial shows you how to wrangle a few ingredients into a flaky crust that will bake beautifully without sliding down the pan or hold a juicy filling without getting soggy with just a few ingredients you probably have in your pantry and fridge.
Equipment
- 9" Pie plate
Ingredients
Single American Pie Crust
- 1 ¾ cups cake flour (180 grams)
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (45 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (85 grams)
- 3 tablespoons shortening (45 grams)
- 2 tablespoons beaten egg
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 5 tablespoons ice water
Double American Pie Crust
- 2 ¼ cup cake flour (280 grams)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (70 grams)
- 1 ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 9 tablespoons unsalted butter (130 grams)
- ¼ cup shortening (60 grams)
- 3 tablespoons beaten egg
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice
- 8 to 9 tablespoons ice water
Instructions
Single American Pie Crust
- Cut the butter into tablespoons size pieces and cut those in half. Freeze until rock hard.
- Measure the shortening in tablespoons and freeze those until they are rock hard also.
- Combine the cake. all-purpose flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times to mix well.
- Place the frozen butter over the flours. Pulse several times to cut the butter into large chunks.
- Add the frozen shortening. Pulsing the processor, cut in until the butter and shortening are the size of large peas. Do not over process. Use short bursts.
- Combine the egg, lemon juice and water. Pour it in a circle over th e processor contents. Pulse until it forms small clumps in the bowl. Note: One of my long time readers came up with an alternative way to add the liquid that worked better for her. After cutting in the butter and shortening, she removed everything to a large bowl. Then added the liquids and stirred them in by hand to prevent the butter and shortening from being cut into too small of pieces.
- Pour it onto a lightly floured work surface. Push the clumps together to form a cohesive mass.
- Knead it 4 or 5 times to forma dough. Pat into a circle about 1" thick. Wrap in plastic warp and refrigerate a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Roll the dough into a circle about 13 ½" for a 9" pie pan. The easiest way to do this is to roll the dough from the center to the outside. Go around the entire circle of dough this way. Trim to a 13" circle.
- Pick this up by sliding both hands under the crust and lifting it into the pie plate. It can also be rolled up on a rolling pin and unrolled in the pie plate. Position it so it is even in the plate. There will be a 1" overhang.
- Turn the overhang underneath the dough at the edge. Flute the edge as shown or as you please. I do not make holes with a fork.
- Fill and bake as your recipe requires.
To Blind Bake a Crust which is to bake it empty.
- After the crust has been completed in the pie plate freeze it until it is rock hard.
- When ready to bake, spray a large piece of foil with a non-stick baking release. Place it, sprayed side down into the crust shaping it to fit. Do not use parchment paper as it can break when you have to remove the weights.
- Fill it to the top with beans or rice which I favor over the marble like pie weights and I think they are too heavy and can mark the crust.
- Bake for 20 minutes with the beans. Remove the beans by bringing the four corners of the foil together and lifting it out. Return the crust to the oven and bake or about 15 to 18 minutes more until evenly browned and baked through.
- Cool and fill as desired.
Double Crusted American Pie
- Divide the dough into two pieces. One about 400 grams and the other 200 grams. Form each int a round about 1" thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about 2 hours or overnight.
- Roll the larger amount of pastry as above for the single crust but do not flute the edge.
- Fill the pastry as desired.
- Roll the smaller piece into a 12" circle. Wet the overhanging edge of the bottom pastry with water. Place the 12" circle on top and press the edges slightly together. Tuck the overhang underneath and flute the edge.
- Cut vents in the top.
- Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle with sanding sugar.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place the pie on it. This will make clean up easy if the filling goes over te edge while baking.
- To prevent the edges from browning too much or burning, it is easier to cover them with foil before you bake than halfway through when it is hot. We did this at the bakery. Halfway through baking we removed the foil from the edges and after baking they were the same color as the rest of the crust. Tear off 3 pieces of foil about 4" wide. Place them over the fluted edges of the crust, covering them front and back.
- Bake as directed in your recipe.
- Allow the pie to cool on a cooling rack before serving or freezing.
Notes
There is always an abundance of photos to guide you in the post above. If you have questions, look at the photos or read the header of the article. Many of them will be answered there.
As always, I recommend using a scale for accuracy and consistency. Flour, in particular, is difficult to measure by volume. For my recipes, I use 140 grams per cup of unsifted all-purpose, bread or whole wheat flour and 125 grams of cake flour. Others may use different weights so use whatever they suggest.
Unless otherwise noted, salt refers to table salt.
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
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Everything should be worked cold - the butter, shortening, egg and water.
I don't poke holes in the unbaked crusts to prevent liquids from escaping through them. It also keeps them from becoming flaky. If bubbles do pop up, I simple flatten them.
If a crust is to be par baked, that means only bake it partially. It will finish in the oven after the filling is added. It needs to be weighted down with beans or rice.
A blind baked crust is one that is fully baked and weighted down half way through baking.
The tray with the pie can be placed on the lowest rack in the oven to ensure the bottom bakes.
The egg wash on top is optional but makes for the best looking pies.
