Pies + Tarts

All-Butter Pie Crust

All-Butter Pie Dough

A little sugar, plenty of butter, and a bit of folding make for a tender, flaky dough that bakes beautifully and can be used with your favorite fruit fillings. I recommend using a preheated baking sheet and a glass pie plate for making sure the bottom crust is fully cooked and golden brown; see individual recipes for directions on baking. 

All-Butter Pie Dough

All-Butter Pie Crust

Sarah Kieffer
5 from 2 votes
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Ingredients

  • 18 tablespoons [255 g or 2 1/4 sticks] unsalted butter cold, cut into 18 pieces
  • Water ice cold
  • 2 1/2 cups [355 g] all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Put the butter in a small bowl and place it in the freezer. Fill a medium measuring cup with water and add plenty of ice. Let both the butter and the ice water sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, mix the flour, sugar, and salt on low until combined. Add half of the chilled butter and mix on low until the butter is just starting to break down, about 1 minute. Add the rest of the butter and continue mixing until the butter is broken down and in various sizes (some butter will be incorporated into the dough, some will still be a bit large, but most should be about the size of small peas.) Stop the mixer and use your hands to check for any large pieces of butter that didn't get mixed or any dry patches of dough on the bottom of the bowl; break up the butter and incorporate the dry flour as best you can. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add about 1/3 cup [80 g] of the ice water and mix the until the dough starts to come together but is still quite shaggy (if the dough is not coming together, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does).
  • Dump the dough out on a lightly floured work surface and flatten it slightly into a square. Gather any loose/dry pieces that won't stick to the dough and place them on top of the square. Gently fold the dough over onto itself and flatten again. Repeat this process 3 or 4 more times, until all the loose pieces are worked into the dough, being careful not to overwork the dough. Flatten the dough one last time into a rectangle and cut into 2 equal pieces. Form the piece into 6 in discs and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes before using.
  • Reply
    Patricia
    Wednesday, November 23, 2022 at 10:11 pm

    5 stars
    Hello, I absolutely love the fraisage method you use in your galette recipe in your The Vanilla Bean Baking Book, which I equally adore. I turn to it again and again. I was curious why you don’t use the fraisage method in your pie dough recipe as well. Do the two methods yield different types of pastry? Is the traditional pie dough method (without fraisage) more tender, for example, while the fraisage method is more flakey? Thanks so much.

  • Reply
    Gg
    Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 1:24 pm

    Dear ::: Gently fold the dough over onto itself and flatten again. Repeat this process 3 or 4 more times, until all the loose pieces are worked into the dough, being careful not to overwork the dough” do u mean like making puff pastry folding or just folding not like puff pastry? Tgx

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