Easy Pie Crust Recipe

• Butter, Cold: 1 stick (8 Tablespoons)
• All-Purpose Flour: 1 cup + 1 Tablespoon
• Sugar: 2 teaspoons
• Salt: 1 teaspoon
• Cold Water: 1/4 cup

1. Take your cold stick of butter and cut it into Tablespoon-sized portions. Put it back in the refrigerator.
2. Measure out flour, sugar, and salt together in a medium or large bowl. Stir ingredients together to incorporate. Transfer to a food processor. (Note: your food processor doesn’t have to be big or fancy here. Mine is a little plastic 4 cup processor with a grind & chop function that works great!)
3. Measure out the water and put it in the refrigerator. Take the butter out of the refrigerator and add it to the food processor.
4. Pulse the flour, sugar, salt, and butter about 10–15 times until butter is broken up into pea-sized chunks. Dump the entire mix back into your bowl. (Note: Pulse your food processor instead of continuously running the machine to avoid warming up the butter too much. You’re making the dough in the bowl, not the processor. The mix should still be dry and crumbly.)
5. In the bowl, pour in the water. Stir together with your fingers until dough is scrappy, but sticking together, with no dry patches on the bottom or sides of the bowl.
6. Flatten pie dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (Note: You can leave the dough in the fridge at this point for a week. When you’re ready to roll it out, let it sit at room temperature for 15–30 minutes.)

Rolling the dough and making the shell:

1. Place your dough disk on a floured surface. Keep your pie dish nearby to correctly calculate how big you need to roll your shell. Very lightly flour the top of your dough to keep the rolling pin from sticking.
2. Roll out your dough, working as slowly as you like. Place your pie dish on top of the rolled-out dough as you go to make sure you’re getting to the right size. You’re looking to keep the dough as round as possible — but if it’s not perfectly circular, no big deal! Ultimately, you’re looking for at least an inch of dough to extend past the widest part of your pie plate when you set it on top.
3. Brush any excess flour from the top of the dough. Smoothly and carefully lift the dough off of the counter and gently lay it on your nearby pie dish. Center it as needed.
4. Press the bottom of the pie dough flat and into the bottom edge of the pie dish. With scissors, trim the dough about ½ inch around the rim of the dish.
5. Gently tuck the small overhanging dough back under the edge of the dough, forming your crust.

‍