All-Butter Pie Crust

Name: All-Butter Pie Crust
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 2 disks (for 2 single-crust pies or 1 double-crust pie)
Ingredients: 1/3 cup/85 grams ice-cold water; 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar; 2 teaspoons granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt; 1 cup/228 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes; 2 1/2 cups/330 grams all-purpose flour

By Genevieve Ko

Published Nov. 13, 2022

All-Butter Pie Crust — Sang An for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.

Total Time: 10 minutes, plus chilling
Rating: 4(659)
Comments: Read comments

Foolproof and versatile, this pie dough starts with a trick from the chef and television personality Carla Hall. She dissolves sugar and salt in ice-cold water before adding it all to the flour to form a supple dough that’s easy to roll and evenly seasoned. Here, vinegar is also stirred into the solution to ensure a tender crust. Whether you make the dough by hand, with a stand mixer or a food processor, you’ll end up with a flaky pastry that tastes great with sweet or savory fillings.

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Ingredients

Yield:2 disks (for 2 single-crust pies or 1 double-crust pie)

⅓cup/85 grams ice-cold water
2teaspoons distilled white vinegar
2teaspoons granulated sugar
1teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1cup/228 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
2½cups/330 grams all-purpose flour

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Stir together the water, vinegar, sugar and salt until the sugar and salt dissolve. Put in the freezer until ready to use.
Step 2
To make the dough in a stand mixer, toss the butter with the flour in the mixer bowl until evenly coated. Beat with the paddle on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. It’s OK if there are a few pea-size clumps, but there shouldn’t be many. Add the water solution all at once and beat on low speed until the mixture forms large clumps and no floury bits remain.
Step 3
To make the dough in a food processor, pulse the butter and flour until coarse crumbs form. Add the water solution all at once and pulse until the mixture forms large clumps.
Step 4
To make the dough by hand, toss the butter with the flour in a large bowl until evenly coated. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut or smoosh the butter and rub it into the flour until coarse crumbs form. It’s OK if there are some almond-size pieces, but there shouldn’t be many. Add the water solution all at once and stir with a fork or your hand until the dough comes together.
Step 5
Whichever method you used, gather the dough into a large mass (about 660 grams total). If making single-crust or regular double-crust pies, divide the dough in half to form 2 disks (330 grams each). For a lattice pie, form a little more than a third of the dough into a disk for the bottom (250 grams), then split the remaining in half to form 2 disks for the top (205 grams each).
Step 6
Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour and preferably 1 day. The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.

Ratings

4 out of 5

659 user ratings

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Comments

Grumpy But a Good Cook2 years ago

Please don’t start reviews before you have actually tasted the recipe results. "I'll try this and then report back." "I'll let you know how it turns out." These comments from different dates never get connected in print and no one knows how experiments turn out. Please make the recipe, see how it works and how well you and your family liked it, and then write a complete review instead of trying to hand out your observations in installments. It doesn't work and isn't helpful. Thanks.

M2 years ago

Are these crusts better with European or American style butter?

Cass2 years ago

Can not rave about this pie dough recipe enough. After years of making pie dough with many different recipes that turned out very disappointing I discovered this recipe. Every time I've made it the crust has been excellent. I'm not a natural cook. I'm only as good as the recipe I'm using and with this recipe I know the results will be worth the effort. One added step I do is to chill the bowl and all utensils I use to make the dough.

knhVT6 days ago

This was a revelation to me. I’ve been making pie crusts since I was a teen, which is now 50 years ago. I’ve used lard, lard and butter, vegetable shortening and butter… I have never used a food processor before, however, so I thought I’d try it. I got the most perfect-looking pie crust I’ve ever made. It looked like it came out of a commercial kitchen. Unfortunately, while not tough, it also had the too-uniform, blah nature of a commercial pie crust. It had layers in it, but it wasn’t anything like the very flaky, light crusts I make. Thanks, Ms. Ko, but I’m going back to my truly handmade butter or butter and lard crusts!

Cordelia3 months ago

Looked and tasted like a board. Sigh, it's me not the recipe, I think. Any advice?

Lacey Parr6 months ago

Great for pot pie, not great for actual pie (dessert). I usually make a lard/butter crust, this was my first time making an all butter crust. I wish the recipe would have given more instruction for baking. The sides absolutely melted in the oven, did not hold any shape at all. I had to keep taking it out to push the sides up or it would have been a mushy goo at the bottom. Maybe freezing the rolled out dough in the pie pan before would have helped? This crust was also VERY HARD to cut as the bottom of the pie. It was fine for the top crust of a savory pot pie. It tasted great but I’ll be going back to my lard/butter crust.

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