Recipe: Pie Crust

Growing up, I always thought I HATED pie crust. I was the kid who scoop/scraped up all the pumpkin filling on Thanksgiving, leaving a sad flat sail on the plate. I couldn’t understand why gooey berry filling had to be wrapped in limp cardboard! I just never liked pie crust… until I had Benji’s.

Apparently, I just wasn’t having the right pie crust! When it’s flakey and buttery… it's so delicious. Now, the edge of the crust, with too many layers to count, is my favorite. And ever since I’ve come around, I’ve joined Benji in celebrating PIE SEASON when fall turns to winter and the holidays approach. This past pie season was especially fun for us because we were in the midst of launching our food business together. Naturally, we made the most of the timing and shared some of our favorites with you all. We made dozens of apple and pecan pies, quiches, and galettes – so many crusts rolled and shaped and baked! Our 2024 Pie Project is wrapped up now, but we hope you’ll keep the golden flakey good times going in your home kitchen with (drumroll please…) Benji’s own pie crust recipe! 

It’s the crispy, flakey perfect vessel for any pie, quiche, tart, and galette in your recipe box (or, ya know, on the internet). And, it’s easy enough that anyone, including me, can master it! We hope it’ll convince anyone who, like me, snubbed pie crust, that there’s a better way out there. 

It’s a simple recipe – give it a try, and let us know how it goes in the comments!

BENJI’S PIE CRUST RECIPE

The key with pie dough is to keep everything as COLD as possible! This goes for all your ingredients and means letting your dough ~CHILL~ at several points in the process. 

Resist the temptation to over-handle your dough – large streaks of butter and minimal water translate to great flakiness! Once the dough just comes together, it needs to chill for several hours to become workable. Then, when rolling out, be sure to let your dough chill again before filling and baking so the gluten can relax. Putting a COLD pie crust into the oven will help you get a nicely defined flute/crimp and reduce shrinkage. 

Yields 2 single or 1 double crust

300 g. all purpose flour
½ lb. unsalted butter (225 g., 2 sticks)
6 g. kosher salt
15 g. sugar if making a savory pie OR 30 g. sugar if making a sweet pie
½ to ⅔ c. ice cold water

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut sticks of butter lengthwise, rotate and cut lengthwise again, so you have four long sticks of butter. Then cut the sticks into small squares, about the size of dice. Toss with the flour to fully coat each piece of butter. Put the bowl of butter and dry ingredients in the freezer for 15 minutes. 

After 15 minutes, take the bowl out of the freezer and begin working the butter into the flour, pinching each piece between your thumb and pointer finger and squishing it flat. Continue working the butter into the flour this way until the pieces are approximately ‘the size of peas’ (this is the visual cue pie crust recipes always use for some reason). If your butter feels warm or tacky at this point, return the bowl to the freezer for 15 minutes. 

Make a well in the center of your bowl and add ½ cup ice cold water. Stir to incorporate. The mix will be quite dry still – that is okay! Turn it out onto a work surface and push the dough together into a mound. Using a rolling pin, push the dough down, flattening it. Cut into four quarters and then stack them (they will still be a little crumbly). Push down with the rolling pin and repeat the process of quartering, stacking, and flattening twice more. If, while doing this, your dough feels way too dry, add a tablespoon of water at a time until it feels workable. (Adding water at this point is not ideal, as it's tricky to incorporate evenly, but it can be done. After making pie dough a few times you’ll get a feel for how dry is too dry. Resist adding too much water – that will result in a hard pie crust.)

Divide the dough in half if you are making 2 single crusts, or split into a ⅗ portion (for your bottom crust) and a ⅖ portion (for your top crust) if you are making a double crust pie. Tightly wrap each piece in parchment or plastic and gently roll over each a couple times to smooth out the sides. Let rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours or ideally overnight. 

Once rested, on a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough into a round a couple inches wider than your pie pan (the dough should be ⅛ to ¼ inch thick). Place the dough round in a pie tin — you should have about a half inch of overhang all around. Trim with scissors anywhere there is excessive overhang. Fold the overhang under to create a double-layered edge. You can flute, crimp or decorate this edge in any number of ways, so experiment and find your favorites. Return to the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

To parbake (if your pie recipe calls for it), preheat the oven to 400°F. Gently dock your crust (poke it several times with a fork) to prevent it from inflating as it bakes. Line the prepared crust with tin foil or parchment (crumple it up beforehand to make it more pliable) and add pie weights (you can use rice, beans, sugar, or commercial pie weights) to completely fill the pan, making sure the sides are well supported. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 400°F until the rim of the crust is starting to get golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. At that point, remove the pie weights, reduce oven temperature to 375°F, and bake the crust for about 10 more minutes, or until the base of the crust looks dry.

Your pie crust is now ready to be filled and baked according to your recipe!