Try this easy Homemade Pie Crust Recipe, which will help you make a yummy pie crust the entire family will love! Super light and flaky, this recipe makes the very best pie crust!
I admit it, I hate pie crust, that is all except mom’s “very best” pie crust! It seems like it is usually difficult to make a crust that tastes great and also has a good texture.
Tawra
PrintThe Very Best Pie Crust Recipe
Here’s mom’s famous homemade pie crust recipe which really is the VERY BEST! Super light and flaky, this pie crust is melt in your mouth delicious! Everyone raves about it! Make some extra to freeze and use later and you’ll cut your preparation time for your next pie!
- Yield: 3 pie crusts
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 cups shortening, cold
1 egg, cold
1 Tbsp. vinegar, cold
5 Tbsp. cold water
sugar
Instructions
- Mix flour, salt and 2 Tbsp. sugar in a bowl.
- Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or 2 knives.
- Add egg, vinegar and 3 tablespoons water.
- Mix lightly with your hands. Don’t over mix. If the dough is too dry, add more water. Mix just until the dough sticks together.
- Divide into thirds.
- Roll out on a lightly floured surface to make 3 pie crusts.
- When using the crust for the top of the pie, sprinkle sugar on top.
The pie dough can be frozen in slightly flattened balls and then defrosted and rolled out when ready to use. Makes 3 crusts.
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Easy Graham Cracker Pie Crust Recipe
This easy graham cracker crust recipe makes a sweet and buttery graham cracker pie crust perfect for homemade no-bake cheesecake, no bake pies and other tasty desserts!
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients.
- Press into a pie pan.
Use a spring form pan if you have one to make it easier. If you don’t have one, a 9-inch pie pan will work well, too.
From A Reader:
I purchase frozen pies most of the time. My husband prefers peach. To make them “more like Mama’s” when they come out of the oven, I sprinkle the tops of the pies with a few sprinkles of granulated sugar & a few sprinkles of cinnamon. I always have multiple compliments on my “homemade pies”.
I love your newsletter!!
Sincerely,
Terri H., Pahrump, NV
Thanks for the great tip Terri. You can add the sugar before you bake it too. Try carving your last name initial in the top crust before you bake it with a knife. You would really have them fooled then. : )
Jill
Jill, This is a yummy recipe.
Lemon Pineapple Pie (Makes 2 pies)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can lemon pie filling
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple (well drained)
1 (8 ounce) carton of cool whip
2 graham cracker crumb crusts
Combine the condensed milk, lemon pie filling and the drained pineapple; mix well. Fold in cool whip. Pour into pie crusts. May be frozen.
If it has sweetened condensed milk in it you have me sold.
oooh my this sounds Delish !!
Thank you for the recipe Bea
Sounds yummy
I like sweetened condensed milk in recipes too. Yummy.
Hi Bea, Hi Jill:
this looks really good, but I’m a little confused. What makes the pie actually “set up”? the lemon pie filling, does the cool whip get solid again?
I bet a little cream cheese would thicken it even more and cut some of the sweetness? love the flavors presented here, but sweetened condensed milk is a little too sweet for me. ?
thanks, I hate it when I’m a bit dense! And Jill, I’m determined to learn to make pie crust! I can’t even unroll the premade ones and have them work!
No problem Donna. The lemon pie filling is thick enough added to the cool whip and when you chill. It thickens it just fine. You should just gently fold in the cool whip which helps keep its thickness.
I’m not sure if it would work but sometimes when I do things with pudding and cool whip I add some sour cream and that cuts the sweetness although I love sweetness and could drink the can of sweeten condensed milk.
Bea, thanks for the recipe. My mom loves lemon and pineapple, but lemon pies often contain egg (she’s allergic). I’m definitely going to try this recipe.
You are welcome Tanya. Hope you like it. I like lemon and pineapple too. YUMMY. Even Island Pineapple Jello.
Ensure that they didn’t sneak eggs into the lemon pie filling. I use them in mine.
Could you just use lard or butter if you have it on hand (I’m a newbie! :P)?
A friend of the family told me the best pies are made with lard!
Thanks
I always used lard for my pie crust for years and my mom still does. It is the best. I like it even better then butter because it gives an extra flakiness to the crust. I stopped using it because everyone went to this fat craze a few years back and it got really hard to find lard at some stores which caused me to start using Crisco. It is pretty close to using lard and since I always have it on hand and don’t have the lard I use it. I finally did find some lard and it was in the meat section.
Butter, well many people use butter for the nice flavor it gives the crust but the texture and flakiness is often not quite as good as lard or Crisco. If I really didn’t want to give up my butter flavor I would use the butter flavored Crisco.
I say use Crisco in my recipes here because most people wouldn’t know what lard was let alone try and find it and Crisco is a close second.
Thanks Jill
Can the pie crust recipe use gluten free flour
Yes Carol here is the whole Thanksgiving dinner gluten free and recipes https://www.livingonadime.com/dairy-free-gluten-free-thanksgiving-dinner-recipes/
MMMM, pie, one of my favorite subjects!!!
I do make a good homemade pie crust, because years ago I just
kept making it until it was right. It was suddenly usable and controllable,
and did not crumble and break during the rolling out. It’s worth the trial
and error!
Another way to make those frozen pies look homemade, is to take the frozen pie
right out of the foil pan and place it into the same size glass pie pan, before
baking!
Cut the amount of water in half and substitute chilled vodka for the water…learned this on Americas Test Kitchen…makes a flaky crust.
Wow, I definitely need to try that. I have lemon vodka in my freezer lol
the recipe for the pie crust sounds good but all it says is add sugar but dosent say how much
The first 2 Tbsp. sugar.
Soon after we married, in 1977, I made pastry which gave Him indigestion.Never made it since.How’s that for a mega sulk?
Palm Shortening is great for pie crust also.
The best pie crusts have lard in them! :) I have a friend who, at the time, was about 3 times my age; she is a great cook. For my pre-wedding gift 3 years ago, my dear friend (she and her husband are the reason my husband and I found each other) taught me how to make pie crust (something I’ve never made and I love to bake), but not just any pie crust, old fashioned lard pie crust. My sister wanted to learn too, so my sister and I went to our friend’s house and learned how to make a pie. I made the pie, while my sister watched and wrote everything down; mine was strawberry rhubarb. So YUMMY! She also gave me a longburger (spelling?) pie plate, a thing to roll the pie crust out on (can’t think of what it’s called right now), and the rolling pin that my friend and her husband had received as a wedding gift many moons ago. I still use store bought crusts for things like quiche or sour cream lemon pie, but if I am going to make a pie, I make the real deal.
You are so right Alexis. My mom always used lard and I did too for the first 20 years after I was married but then there was the fat scare which didn’t bother me but many of the stores didn’t sell it any more which I hated. Only recently have they started carrying it again but you really have to search for it. My grandma always used it to make biscuits too. It makes things flakier or something. It is hard to explain. I now don’t use it because I would use it only for pies and I don’t make them often enough now to keep it around.
For those of you who want to know what we are talking about you can buy lard in a square block (I think I saw some in the meat section of our store the last time I was there) and substitute it for the Crisco using the same amount.
In the two stores where I shop, it is in the cold section with the bacon, cheese, etc. My friend actually gave a whole bunch to me that she got from a local meat locker; I store it in the freezer because I don’t use it that often. She said that the lard from the locker is best because she can find out exactly what the hogs were fed, unlike lard from the grocery store; I think she said lard from corn-fed hogs is best for making pies.
Or, another alternative is to save the fat when you cook duck. Keep it in the freezer until you have enough. It makes delicious pies and cookies, etc.
It seems that nowadays they’re once again back pedaling and found out that, of course, lard is a much better and healthier option than Crisco or margarine. It’s just that, at the time, lard and butter were very cheap or practically free and that wasn’t good for business $$.
So true Mary. Sounds like you have lived almost as long as I have and have found out that they usually have to do a bunch of back pedaling on different foods that “they” said were no no over the years. That is why I just keep eating everything but do it in moderation.
Strawberry Rhubarb is my all time favorite pie-can you please provide the recipe.?
Sorry Marta we don’t have a Strawberry Rhubarb recipe.
Thank you….I love helpful hints and especially when they are money savers too.
For years I struggled with making a good pie crust, that was easy to handle, tender to eat, and predictable from one time to the next. Finally, I found the crust that could not fail. It is virtually identical to the one you have posted in this article. Thanks for sharing it. I found mine in a Mennonite cookbook.
This is truly the BEST pie crust ever! I made it today and it came out so light and flaky! This is the only pie crust recipe I’ll ever use.
One thing, though. The recipe says it makes three pies out of one batch but I feel it will make two pies; maybe three custard pies but if you put another layer of crust on top of your pies this recipe will yeild enough for two deep dish pies.
Yes Mary. Should have been more plain on that. We meant it makes 3 pie crusts.So glad you like the pie crust. Thanks a lot for letting us know.
on pies where the crust is not baked before filling (fruit pies, pumpkin) – to keep the bottom crust from becoming soggy brush the bottom with egg white before putting the filling in, this seals the crust
How do you cut in the shortening for making the pie crust?
Thank You,. Katherine
Basically what you do is you add the shortening to the flour and gently “moosh” or squish them together until it forms little crumbly balls. What it boils down to is that you don’t want to use a mixer and have it all well mixed together like you do cookie dough or a cake. By leaving the shortening and flour in little crumbles like that it will help the pie bake in such a way that it is flaking.
I roll my pie crust out on a floured towel and for some reason it rolls out better and stays together when I fold it to pick up.
Good idea Linda. They sell special cloths, that can be expensive, to roll out your pies on and to slip on your rolling pin but a good old floured tea towel would do the same thing and that would make it easier to pick up.
I just have to offer another pie crust and easy “no bake” pie recipe … especially since so many of you seem to like sweetened condensed milk.
For the crust: combine crushed gingersnap cookies with melted butter and press into pie plate.
For the filling: 1 can frozen lemonade concentrate, allowed to thaw (I suspect you could use pineapple juice or orange juice or any other juice for a slightly less “sweet” filling)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container Cool Whip
Combine the thawed concentrate with the condensed milk. Fold in the Cool Whip. Pour into prepared shell and chill for 2 hours or more. Easy, delicious, and actually rather light as a dessert after a big supper, but definitely a treat for your sweet tooth.
Yum sounds good Donna
I got your cookbook a while back and have been using it. Last month I made cookies for a church bake sale and tonight I used the “Best Pie Crust” to make three strawberry pies. I will start making Christmas cookies Friday for our next bake sale. Thanks for sharing so much of your lives with us.
Hello, I love to read your recipes. I live in Gt Britain, find it fun to read or watch programmes on American Cooking. I would like to order your Cookbook.
Sallie we tried to email you but the address did not work. You can try contacting us here Contact. We do ship to the UK at this time but the postage is $50 at this time so our ebook might cost you less. Just contact us and we can help you out.
What kind of vinegar do you use?
Just regular white vinegar
Times up but my crust looks pale , should I turn up the heat for a few minutes or keep cooking at 350? Peach pie. Thank youBea ross
This pie crust alone was worth the price of the cookbooks! I love making pies and mine were always delicious made with my homemade pie crust recipe. I didn’t think it could be beat. I was wrong. This, and Jill’s “Blue” Cheese dip recipe are 2 things I make over and over. We raised 8 kids and rarely ate out so I was somewhat burned out on cooking after all these years. However, all that changed when I purchased all 3 of your cookbooks and downloaded most of the e-books. Now, cooking is an adventure for me once again. Like you, I have suffered with autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia and have the MTHFR gene (both of them. I inherited them from both parents.) Also, suffer from migraine headaches which are debilitating. So bad, one migraine actually caused me to have a major stroke. I didn’t think anything would motivate me to jump right back into trying to do my regular home chores again. But thanks to your videos and books, they were the “push” to help me get up and do my best to get well. Cooking and baking turned out to be great therapy for me to regain a lot of what I lost. Tawra, remembering you say “get it together, people” is exactly what I need almost every day. I’m very grateful to the Lord and to all of you. I know how hard it is to do what you do and the sacrifices you have all made to get where you are. I just think you need to know how very important your “ministry” is to some of us. And yes, that’s exactly what it is because your motivation and exhortation is more valuable than you think.
Oh my Diane! It is Monday and what a wonderful comment to start our week with. I know you talked about us encouraging you but I often don’t think you guys realize what a two way street it is and what your sweet, kind and thoughtful comments mean to us and encourage us. I don’t know if you realize but some days just getting a comment like this helps us so much to keep us going. So thank you. So sorry you are having to deal with so many illnesses and am so impressed that you are trying so hard to keep going. I know how hard it can be some days and it can take all your energy just to crawl out of bed let alone take the time to write a comment like this too. Thank you so much and hang in there sounds like you are doing a great job.