Butter Pie Crust (Food Processor)
4 Ingredients, 4 Minutes: it's easy to make a perfect pie crust in no time with a food processor!
Bird's eye view of what you
need to make a butter pie crust in a food
processor: butter, ice-water, flour, salt,
rolling pin, pie pan, measuring spoons, and
of course the food processor. Watch
the video!
Watch this video (less than 5 minutes) to see how easy it is.
I make one recipe for a single crust, 1-1/4 recipes if I want to do pie crust art, and 1-1/2 recipes for a covered pie. Here are quantities for all three:
Ingredient |
1 recipe |
1-1/4 recipe |
1-1/2 recipe |
Chilled butter |
1 stick (8 TB) |
1-1/4 stick (10 TB) |
1-1/2 stick (12 TB) |
Flour |
1-1/3 cups |
1-2/3 cups |
2 cups |
Salt |
Dash |
Dash |
Dash |
Ice water |
2-2/3 TB |
3-1/3 TB |
4 TB |
Cut the butter into 8-12 pieces and place in food processor. Add the flour and salt. Pulse about 10-15 times until the mixture looks like small peas. With the processor running, add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Process until the dough begins to clump. If you keep processing, it will eventually form one ball. This is cool to see, but I’m told too much processing can make the crust tough.
Sprinkle a little flour on a cool, dry surface and place the dough on it. (Note: if you’ve made the larger recipe, take about 2/3 of the dough for rolling the bottom crust.) Rub a little flour onto the rolling pin so it won’t stick and roll the dough in a rough circle a little larger than the diameter of your pan. If the dough sticks, sprinkle on a little more flour. The dough should be about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Use a spatula to loosen the dough from the surface, and fold it in half and then quarters to make lifting it easy. Place in the pie pan and press to shape. If you’re so inclined, use your fingers or a fork to make a pretty edge on the crust.
Making the top crust: Shape remaining dough into a flat disk and roll out as above. Determine how big to make the crust based on how much fruit you’ve piled in the pie. Place crust on top of fruit and seal the edges.
If you want to make it fancy, cut out some shapes before you put the crust on top; otherwise, just cut some slits in the top to allow steam out.
Alternatively, you may choose to do a lattice crust or pie crust art.
Tips
from Jane
— If you don’t have a food processor,
you can make this
crust by hand. The process
is essentially the same.
—Many people recommend chilling the dough for an hour before rolling. I usually don’t remember to do this, but if you have time you might want to.
— Pie crust is very forgiving. If yours tears or splits, as mine often does, just patch it together with your fingers or a little bit of dough. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little bumpy or uneven—after all, it’s going to be covered with yummy filling! You don’t want holes in the crust, however, as that could allow the filling to seep underneath.
— Crimping the edge to make it look nice isn’t hard. Just use your fingers to shape small indentations, working your way around the crust. You can also use the back of a fork to make an edge.