Kitchen Tip: How to Make Pie Crust
Recipe, video and photography provided by Heinen’s partner, Chef Billy Parisi.
There’s something nostalgic about a homemade pie baking away in the oven, but baking pies from scratch seems to be an intimidating activity nowadays.
Whether or not you’re a pro baker, you can create a delicious pie like Grandma used to make with a few helpful tips!
Heinen’s has an incredible selection of homestyle pies in the Bakery, but if you’re interested in bettering your basic baking skills, this tutorial is a great place to start.
When it comes to baking pies from scratch, the crust seems to be the most common intimidating factor, but it doesn’t have to be. A traditional pie crust is actually made from only six pantry staple ingredients and comes together in about 20 minutes.
The great thing about this classic pie crust, aside from it being extremely easy to make, is that it is versatile, too! It can be the base of a pie or sliced into strips and weaved into a lattice design to place over top of your favorite pie filling. It can also be made sweet or savory. If you’re making a savory pie, simply omit the sugar from the recipe. It’s that easy!
No matter how you slice it, this simple pie crust is sure to impress anyone lucky enough to enjoy your desserts! Who knows, this may even become a treasured family recipe!
Kitchen Tip: How to Make Pie Crust
Servings: 1 Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. sugar
- 1 stick Heinen’s unsalted butter, cold and cut up
- 2-3 oz. cold water
Instructions
For the Pie Crust
- Add the flour, salt, sugar and butter to a food processor and pulse on high until the butter is broken up into small pieces.
- Continue to pulse while slowly drizzling in the water until a dough has formed. You’ll know it’s ready when it holds together when squeezed between your fingers.
- Transfer the dough to a clean surface dusted with flour and form into a disc.
- Cover in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and place it on a clean surface dusted with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll it out until it is 16-inches in diameter and about ¼-inch thick.
- Transfer the dough to a pie pan and fold in the excess dough.
- Decorate by making flutes/crimps (pinch together sections of the rim of the pie crust from the outside while pushing on the inside) or press down using a fork.
To Make a Lattice Pie Topping
- Roll the dough out, as outlined in step 5 above, and cut it into 10 equal-size strips. Trim the bottom and top of the strips so they are all one length.
- On a work surface, arrange five of the strips vertically, ½-inch apart.
- Pull the second and fourth strips down most of the way and add one of the remaining strips horizontally over the first, third and fifth strips. Pull the second and fourth strips back up.
- Pull the first, third and fifth strips down most of the way and add another remaining strip horizontally over the second and fourth strips. Pull the first, third and fifth strips back up.
- Repeat this alternating pattern until all of the remaining pie strips are used.
- Transfer to the top of the pie.
