Is the thought of making pie crust keeping you from trying recipes for your favorite pies? Making your own pie crust can seem intimidating, but these six recipes for classic pie crusts make the process easy. Even if you don’t have a lot of baking experience, you’ll get the hang of making these crusts in no time!
Easy Homemade Pie Crust
Easy Homemade Pie Crust is a traditional chilled-butter pie crust, made the easy way – in your food processor! This crust is perfect for fruit pies like apple, cherry and blueberry, as well as pumpkin and custard pies. It bakes up light and flaky, and is often the crust of choice for professional bakers.
It’s tricky to make by hand, but in this recipe your food processor does most of the work for you. No guesswork, and no chance you’ll over-handle the dough!
The steps are simple. Just combine flour, salt, and chilled butter in your food processor and pulse. Pulse in the liquid ingredients until the mixture comes together into a dough, then wrap it up and refrigerate until you’re ready to bake some pie.
Chocolate Cookie Pie Crust
Chocolate Cookie Pie Crust makes a deliciously rich base for ice cream pies, as well as many no-bake pies and cheesecakes. Use this recipe for a simple-to-make crust with chocolate flavor to spare!
All you have to do is crush chocolate cookies, either in your food processor or by hand with a rolling pin. Add some melted butter, pour the crumb mixture into a pie plate, and press it into the bottom and up the sides. Bake, cool, and you’re ready to fill!
Mom’s Pie Crust for a Double Crust Pie
Mom’s Pie Crust for a Double Crust Pie is similar to Easy Homemade Pie Crust, in that it’s a great choice for most classic fruit pies. What makes it different is that it bakes up more crispy and golden than flaky, and it’s even easier to make!
This recipe uses vegetable shortening instead of chilled butter. That helps the dough come together flawlessly, and makes it easier to handle when it’s time to roll it out and position it in your pie pan. Torn dough is easy to patch if it’s made from this recipe, which makes it a great choice for first-time pie makers.
It truly couldn’t be much easier to make. Just cut the shortening into a flour mixture until it looks like coarse crumbs, and add water until you’ve formed a dough. Wrap it up and pop it into the fridge until you’re ready to bake.
Part-Butter/Part-Shortening Easy Pie Dough
Part-Butter/Part-Shortening Easy Pie Dough is an ideal choice if you like your pie crust a little sweet. It’s great for fruit pies, and especially good for single-crust pies like lemon meringue and coconut cream.
This recipe gives you the best of both worlds: by using a combination of butter and shortening, it combines the ease of Mom’s Pie Crust with the bakery-style taste of Easy Homemade Pie Crust. And just like Easy Homemade Pie Crust, this recipe lets your food processor do most of the work, which sets you up for success!
The steps are very similar. Simply pulse the butter, shortening and dry ingredients together in your food processor, then slowly pulse in the liquid ingredients. Wrap the finished dough in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake.
Shortbread Pie Crust
Shortbread Pie Crust is almost a dessert in itself. It’s a match made in heaven for luscious, decadent finales like lemon and chocolate tarts, pecan pies, and cheesecakes and more. When it comes to shortbread pie crust fillings, the sky’s the limit!
These crusts look and taste impressive, but this recipe makes the cooking process very easy. For the most part, you can use your hands!
Just mix butter, brown sugar, white sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Work it with your hands until it holds together as a dough, press it into pie pans and chill. Bake, cool, and you’re ready to fill!
This is a large recipe, which makes enough crust to fill three 9” pie pans. Leftover dough can be stored in the refrigerator, or even frozen, so you’ll be ready for your next shortbread crust pie or tart.
Graham Cracker Crust
Graham Cracker Crust is the classic crust for cheesecakes and a host of no-bake pies and desserts.
While most graham cracker crust recipes call for melted butter, which can be greasy and hard to work with, this one calls for softened butter. The end result is a graham cracker crust that’s easy to press into a pie plate or springform pan, is never greasy, and bakes up light and delicious every time.
All you need to do is crush graham crackers and mix the crumbs with softened butter and sugar. Press the mixture into your plate or pan, and let it chill until you’re ready for the next steps in your dessert.