It’s the easiest, flaky homemade pie crust ever! No machine required for this longtime reader favorite, a butter pie and pastry crust recipe anyone can make.
Move food processor aside! Be gone, hard pie crusts! I’ve found the holy grail of pastry doughs.
It’s flaky, it’s buttery, it’s no frills, and it doesn’t take any hard-to-clean equipment, just your clean hands and a big bowl. The secret?
The recipe came from my friend Kathi Riley, former chef at Zuni Cafe, who has used it as her favorite pastry crust recipe for 25 years and kindly let me share it with you.
Why does this pie crust recipe work?
The biggest problem with flour-based pie crusts is toughness. Toughness occurs when protein strands form in gluten when flour and water come together.
By first rubbing the flour with butter, you coat the protein molecules of the flour with fat. When you add sour cream, you add moisture surrounded by fat. Both the fat in the butter and the fat in the sour cream help keep water molecules away from protein molecules, resulting in a more tender pie crust.
Tips for pie dough success
This cake dough works a little differently than classic cake dough:
- Take the cold out of butter: Many pie crust recipes call for working with very cold ingredients, which is important for an all-butter pie crust. But in this recipe, the butter is worked into the flour by hand, which only works if the butter isn’t too cold. Take the butter out of the fridge and let it sit for a few minutes before incorporating it into the flour mixture. But don’t let it sit for too long! You don’t want soft room temperature butter here.
- Press the butter into the flour: As you work the butter into the flour, mash it so that some of the cubes dip flat into the flour. It can be helpful to press into the bowl with your knuckles. Flattened pieces of butter create flaky layers.
- Stir sour cream: Use full-fat sour cream and stir if it has settled in the container before adding to the batter mixture.
- Make sure your dough discs aren’t cracked: Don’t worry about reworking the dough to shape the dough discs; Because of the way we incorporate fat, this is a very forgiving cake batter. Do what you have to do to make the dough hold together well. If you slice it, it should end up smooth and the consistency of Play-Doh. Once you’ve wrapped the disc of dough in plastic wrap, you can massage the dough and edges with your warm hands to seal any cracks.
Make tips ahead
You can easily make this cake batter and refrigerate or freeze it. For the pre-dough, form a disk that is as flat as possible and wrap it well with cling film. You can prepare it a day in advance and store it in the refrigerator no more than two days before use.
To freeze the dough, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then wrap tightly with aluminum foil. It will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw, gently allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator rather than at room temperature.
Make these pies with this crust
- Apple Cake
- blueberry cake
- Sweet cherry cake
- pecan pie
- Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
How to make the easiest pie crust ever
5:31
Sour cream pie crust
No Fail, sour cream pie crust
This recipe makes enough batter for a top and bottom crust for a 9-inch pie.
The dough ratio is 1 cup flour: 1 stick butter: 1/4 cup sour cream: 1/2 teaspoon salt: 1 teaspoon sugar. These are the amounts for a 9-inch, single-crust pie.
If making a 10-inch cake, use 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces, 1 1/4 cup) butter, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream for a double crust or 1 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/4 sticks (5 ounces) butter, 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sour cream for a single crust.
ingredients
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2 cups (280G) all purpose flour
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1 teaspoon Salt (skip if using salted butter)
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2 teaspoon sugar (for sweet recipes, otherwise skip)
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2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup, 8 ounces, 225G) rolled
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1/2 Cup (115ml) sour cream (full fat, NO light sour cream)
method
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Cut the butter into cubes and let it rest for a few minutes:
Cube the butter and let it sit on the counter to eliminate the chill (don’t soften the butter, just let it sit for a few minutes when you take it out of the fridge).
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Whisk flour, salt, sugar:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt (omit if using salted butter), and sugar (if using).
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Work the butter into the flour with your hands:
Scatter the butter cubes over the flour. Use your clean hands to squash the flour and butter together with your thumbs, fingers, and knuckles. Work the butter into the batter until you have something that resembles a coarse flour with a few flattened bits of butter.
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Add sour cream:
Add the sour cream to the flour and butter mixture. Work into the mixture with a fork.
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Form dough into discs, chill:
Use your hands to gather the dough into a large ball. Cut the ball in half with a knife. Shape into two discs. When you slice the dough, it should be smooth and have the consistency of Play-Doh. Don’t worry about overworking this dough. Shape the slices so that there are no cracks.
Dust everything with some flour. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Once you’ve wrapped the disc of dough in plastic wrap, you can massage the dough and edges with your warm hands to seal any cracks. Chill in the refrigerator an hour or up to a day in advance.
If you want to freeze it for later use, wrap again, this time in aluminum foil, and freeze (thaw in the fridge overnight before using).
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Take the dough out of the fridge, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll it out:
After the dough has been in the fridge for an hour, take it out and let it rest at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before rolling it out to make it more malleable.
If it still feels too stiff to roll out, hold your hands around the edges to soften it.
To roll out, dust a clean, flat surface with flour. When rolling the dough, make sure the bottom doesn’t stick. If so, lift it up and sprinkle a little flour underneath.
Roll out 12 to 14 inches wide and an even thickness.
You can use this pastry dough for unstructured rustic pies or galettes, or traditional single or double crust pies. It can also be used for a savory pot pie.
Whether you’re using the batter for a galette or a double crust pie, it gets prettier with a light egg wash. Simply beat an egg in a small bowl, add a teaspoon of water, and brush lightly over the exposed crust with a pastry brush just before baking.
Blind bake this pie crust
This pie crust recipe is difficult to pre-bake. It contains more fat than a regular crust, which can cause the sides to collapse if you bake it without the filling. However, I have successfully pre-baked this crust by fluting the edges of the batter extra high over the edges of the pie pan, freezing the crust first for at least 30 minutes, lining with heavy foil and filling completely with white granulated sugar, and then 50 minutes at 350° F bake (See our guide to blind baking a pie crust.)
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 2893 | calories |
| 207g | Fat |
| 227g | carbohydrates |
| 34g | protein |
