Pie Crust Recipe – A Beautiful Mess

Learn how to make the absolute best homemade all-butter flaky puff pastry! This recipe only requires 4 ingredients and takes about 10 minutes to make. Who knew homemade pie crust could be so easy?

This butter puff pastry recipe can be used for a variety of pies, including pumpkin pie, apple, sweet potato, blueberry, rhubarb, peach, and cherry. There’s only one secret to this super flaky, buttery puff pastry. Share it.

Related: Make a classic apple pie using my apple pie filling recipe!

See more great pie recipes

Puff pastry recipe ingredients

• all-purpose flour
• salt
• butter
• ice water

I use unsalted butter and always use it in most recipes that call for butter. However, if you only have salted butter, you can try omitting the salt in this recipe.

I also like to add egg wash and sprinkle. turbinado sugar (sometimes called sugar when raw) to this dough before baking.

How to make pie dough

Add flour and salt to a large bowl and mix to combine. Finely chop the cold butter using a box grater. This is the secret to the best flaky pie crust! Add the cold butter to the flour mixture and mix with clean hands. The mixture will be crumbly and resemble small pebbles.

This only takes a few minutes. One of your goals is to touch and mix the pie crust as little as possible. Because this will give you the flakiest pie crust. If you process the dough too much, it can become rubbery or crunchy, like a giant cracker.

Add ice water and mix again with clean hands until the dough forms a ball. There is no need to knead the dough as it is pressed together. Divide into two and shape into small discs. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to use, or in the freezer if you plan to use it later.

How to stretch the dough

Lightly dust the counter and rolling pin with flour. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap it. Use a rolling pin to press down and stretch the dough. If it sticks to pins or the counter, sprinkle more flour on these surfaces.

Once you have the desired size of pie dough, gently roll it around the rolling pin and transfer it to the prepared pie pan. Then remove it from the pin.

Tips and alternatives

• Grating cold butter using a box grater or cheese grater is the best way to make pie crust. But two other methods involve using a pastry blender (also known as a pastry cutter or food processor). For a pastry blender, cut the chilled butter into cubes and cut/smash them into the flour mixture using a pastry blender. For the food processor method, cut the cold butter into small cubes and pulse with the flour mixture in the food processor. Either way, I mix in cold water by hand. I just don’t want to make too much puff pastry.
• For ice water, fill a glass mixing cup with ice and pour in the water. When you’re ready to add ice water to your recipe, measure out the amount you need from this bowl so it’s truly ice cold when you add it to your dough.
• If you would like to replace up to half of the butter in this recipe with vegetable shortening, you can do that. Many recipes in my house don’t use shortening, so I don’t have to buy any and just use butter instead.
• This recipe makes two standard-sized puff pastry sheets, a top and a bottom. If you only need one, try cutting this recipe in half, or you can make both and freeze one for later.
• Puff pastry can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. If you want to keep it for a long time, please freeze it.