What’s the secret to perfect pie crust? Here’s what local bakers, vintage cookbooks say
Thanksgiving is a time for gathering with friends and family to eat, and pie is especially important.
Millions of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, and according to one survey, more than one-third of those who bring pie to the table make it themselves.
Making a great pie starts with the crust. Even though there are countless ways to configure pie crust, and it varies depending on the type of filling, the classic remains the butter crust.
Typically constructed with a few baseline ingredients — flour, salt, butter and water — a traditional butter crust does have room for alterations. They include things like Crisco instead of butter, vodka instead of water, honey for a little sweetness, or nutmeg for some kick. The possibilities are endless.
But no matter what combination of ingredients you choose, there are some key steps every pie crust must include. We talked with local expert bakers and checked classic decades-old cookbooks for tips. Here’s what we found out.
Keep crust ingredients simple and fresh
It might seem like there’s lots of room to play when it comes to making pie crust, but in reality, less is more.
Even when you want to customize your crust to make it sweeter or richer, restraint is key.
At Olympia’s Blue Heron Bakery, lead baker Chris Patterson says he prefers to use buttermilk instead of water for most of his liquid components. Blue Heron takes dozens of advance orders for Thanksgiving pies every year that are picked up by local customers.
Patterson said in an interview that buttermilk (either store-bought or regular milk augmented with vinegar) “adds a richness and thickness to the crust.”
He also uses a little honey for sweetness on some pies.
“I feel like it depends on the pie, but sugarless pie crust is a little bland,” Patterson said. “I make it into a nice mealy mixture and then mix in the honey and buttermilk.”
Why does good pie crust matter?
You may have had a pie crust at some point that was made from Crisco shortening, or even lard. But butter remains the enduring classic when it comes to the fat aspect of ingredients.
At Olympia’s Bayview School of Cooking, which offers classes all winter and year-round, director Leanne Willard says she is personally in favor of butter. Willard says that even though butter can be a bit “temperamental,” it gives the crust a savory aspect that balances it all out. She’s even seen a version that’s closer to a puff pastry, with huge chunks of butter folded into the crust for a flaky result.
However it’s made, though, Willard insists that crust is meant to be eaten, not discarded after eating mostly filling.
“I like a crust that you want to eat,” Willard said in an interview. “Sometimes when people are eating pie, I see them leave the crust. And I just think that’s wrong.”
How to make a good pie crust
No matter what combination of ingredients you use to make your crust, many bakers recommend keeping the fat and liquid components cold. The butter or shortening should be cut into the flour and salt mixture with a fork, pastry cutter or by hand until it’s the size of small peas. While some bakers prefer to make the butter completely mealy, according to the 1953 edition of the “Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book,” the flour and butter mixture should be half-mealy, half-small pea sized.
For Beth Storey, lead pie maker at Bayview School of Cooking, chunky pieces of butter in her crust are crucial.
“I come from a long line of fabulous home bakers,” Storey said in an interview. “I learned to make pie crust at my grandma’s kitchen counter.”
Storey urges pie bakers not to fully incorporate the butter into the flour, much like the Better Homes and Gardens approach. She also suggests being hands-on.
“If you’re a new pie crust maker, I suggest using your hands as a pastry cutter,” she said, adding that another key is to keep the flour fluffy. That can be done by spooning flour into the measuring cup and then leveling out, instead of dipping the cup into the flour and tamping down. The technique will make the final product lighter.
She also says if the recipe calls for weighing flour, do that instead of measuring, and go light on wet ingredients, adding gradually and mixing in between.
When it comes to rolling the crust out and getting it to the right thickness, she says it’s more important to pay attention to the size of the pie dish, and roll accordingly.
“Thickness of crust is not as important as rolling it out to the size of the pie dish,” she said, noting it should be about one inch around larger than the size of your dish. You can check that by flipping the empty dish upside down on top of the crust to see if it’s an inch away from the edge all around.
After you’re done rolling and the bottom crust is in the dish, crimp the edges. If your pie has a top crust or lattice top crust, crimp the edge after adding the top crust. Storey recommends partially baking (or par-baking) the bottom crust for 10 minutes at 375 degrees before adding the filling. If you par-bake your bottom crust and have a top or lattice top crust, crimp that on to the par-baked crust after the filling is in and before you finish baking.
Don’t overwork the dough, though. That can make it tough, and can lead to failure in worst case scenarios.
When it comes to experimenting with a more unconventional approach like using vodka instead of water, Storey says it may not deliver.
“Vodka became a popular liquid because it evaporates at a higher temperature than water,” she said. “That lifts the butter and makes for a flakier crust. But I tell all of my students to save the vodka for a cosmopolitan and use water.”
Key pie crust tips to remember
As time-tested wisdom, cookbooks and local bakers have explained, there are a few key steps to pie crust success.
They include:
Keep liquid and fat ingredients cold.
Don’t overwork the dough.
Keep the flour fluffy.
Use water.
Use butter.
Keep some butter structure in the mix.
Par-bake the crust before adding filling.
Bake at 375 degrees.
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 2:29 PM with the headline "What’s the secret to perfect pie crust? Here’s what local bakers, vintage cookbooks say."
