The Perfect Old-fashioned Pie Crust Recipe

If you are looking for an easy to handle and deliciously flakey pie crust, give this old-fashioned recipe our family has had for generations a try. You won’t be disappointed.

So many of us have favorite food memories and recipes that come out of them. And it is usually because of the people associated with those food memories. For me, it all started with my grandmother’s flakey pie crust.

This is the crust I learned to make from my grandma.

If anyone knew her, they knew she made a good pie with the best crust around. Her mother-in-law even learned to make pie crust from her, which if you knew my great grandmother, there wasn’t much she didn’t know about when it came to from scratch cooking and baking, gardening, or being a homemaker. 

When I started making my grandmother’s crust with her, she used the big can of Crisco. The blue one. You know which one. The one we all try to avoid in the store these days. Yet I could not break myself from the recipe. It was perfect. Until one day it wasn’t. 

I’m not sure if Crisco changed their heart clogging recipe or if it was me becoming more aware of what I was eating and serving my loved ones. But about ten years ago I noticed a difference.

As my grandma taught me, I always let the crust rest in the fridge before rolling it out. And I stared noticing that if I left it for more than a few hours (say a day or two, which is normally fine) it would seem greasy when I took it out. 

I called my sister because she had always used this same recipe. She informed me that she had switched to using all butter long ago. What? I felt betrayed. How could she change grandma’s recipe? I had only switched to the butter flavor Crisco.

How Could We Change her Recipe?

I surely wasn’t going to change it. Yet time and again the same problem occurred. Was it because I had started using the “butter flavor” Crisco? Maybe if I just changed out half the Crisco for butter. That wouldn’t be betrayal, would it? 

No, I figured it wouldn’t. Plus it’s a bit healthier, and its so good that I can’t keep the kids out of the dough whenever I make a pie.

This change has served me fairly well for the last several years. We all love it around here, and I get complimented on the flakiness and deliciousness of it every time. 

So my updated recipe is to use part butter and part lard. Thinking on it I am pretty sure that my grandma, being the daughter of a butcher, would have used lard in her crust recipes in the beginning. She probably didn’t use it until Proctor and Gamble really started to market to the housewives about how bad lard was and that they should be using Crisco instead. It wasn’t something that was ever brought up, so I won’t ever know. But I am glad to now be serving my family healthy natural fats instead.

My Grandmother’s Flakey Pie Crust Recipe

This is a large recipe. It makes 4 pie crusts (2 tops and 2 bottoms usually with a little extra) if you are using a regular or small sized pie pan. If making deep dish it will probably make 3 with extra.

Even if you are only making one pie, try out this recipe. It is so handy to have an extra crust in the fridge (for up to a week) or in the freezer (up to a couple months storage).

Ingredients

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
3/4 cup lard
1/2 cup very cold water
1 tablespoon vinegar (I like organic apple cider vinegar)
1 egg

*Note – you can do all butter, all lard, or a combo of both in any measurement up to the 1 and 3/4 cups

How to Make the Crust

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Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and mix together.

Keep the butter as cold as you can.

Cube the butter and spread it out over the top of the flour mix. Then add in the lard.

Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives. I also sometimes use my fingers, but make sure to not overhand the dough.

But really if you haven’t found the amazingness of the pastry cutter, may I suggest this one?

Once the butter is cut in and the dough is about the size of small peas, add the vinegar and beaten egg. You can mix with a spoon, your fingers, or, like I do, continue with the pastry cutter.

Last, add in the very cold water. (I measure it out and then add a few ice cubes to it.)

Pour most of the water in but not all at once. You may not end up needing it all. I like to pull all the flour mixture to the side and pour the water into the other side of the bowl. Then I gently toss the flour mixture into the water to mix it up, adding more water if needed.

Work the dough together, but do not over mix.

Pat it all into a ball. It should not be too sticky, but should easily stay together. Keeping the mixing to a minimum will keep it a flakey pie crust.

This is where I separate it into 2, 3, or 4 sections depending on what I’m planning to do with it. Make a ball, flatten it, and wrap in wax paper to put in the fridge for 30 min or so.

You can stop at this point if needed, and leave it in there for a few days before you do anything else with it. I will add it to a Ziplock bag if not using it right away.

Tips for working with the Pie Dough

Handle it as little as possible.

When you take the dough out of the fridge, let it sit for a little while if it got rock hard, which is more likely to happen with all butter recipe.

Flour the surface and rolling pin you will be working with.

While rolling it out, it is ok if you see chunks of butter in the flat dough. That is what makes it so flakey as it bakes.

And most important tip of all… 

Watch your children. And husband. They will sneak up and snatch dough right out of your hand. At one point my mom said this recipe made 5 crusts, but I have never gotten it to stretch that far. Darn kids!

How to Prepare and Bake the Pie Crust

When you need to pre-bake this crust for a pie, like my strawberry cream pie, follow these directions. Otherwise bake according to the directions on the type of pie you are making.

Flour the surface you will be working on generously. I always use my silicone baking mat when rolling out dough. If the dough seems extra sticky, flour the rolling pin too.

Roll out the dough, fold in half, and then transfer to the pie plate. I like to bake in a 9.5 inch glass Pyrex pie plate.

Smooth out any wrinkles and fix any holes if needed.

Make sure there is enough dough hanging over the edge to be able to fold over and crimp the edges.

Cut off any excess to make the edges even before crimping.

Fold excess dough under before crimping.

Crimp the sides any way you would like. I push one thumb between two fingers of the other hand like the picture below.

Poke holes in the bottom of the crust and bake at 400 degrees. Cover with foil for 10 minutes and then uncover and bake 15 minutes more or until golden brown. I like using a silicone crust protector to cover the edges in the first 10 minutes. It should come out as a perfectly flakey pie crust.

Remove from oven when golden brown and let cool on the counter.

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