Use these tips for a perfect crust every time

Even experienced cooks can find it intimidating to make pie pastry. The following tips will help you turn out a terrific crust with ease.

Keep the dough cold and the butter chunky

For a flaky crust, keep the butter from melting into the dough before baking. Why? Those bits of butter, which should be roughly pea-size, are meant to melt in the oven, giving off steam that creates flaky pockets. If the dough seems to be softening too much as you’re working with it, throw it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. As you roll out the dough, you should see veins of butter running through it.

Roll out from the center

It’s much easier to roll dough into a circle if you work from the center out to the edge in all directions.

Don’t overdo it

Overworking the dough and using too much flour can make pie crust tough and dry. Try to keep a light hand with both, rolling just enough to reach your desired size and using only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter.

Use a pie crust bag

This handy tool takes the strain out of rolling by providing a nonstick round frame for the dough as you roll it out, allowing you to use less flour and avoid shaggy edges. Simply put your chilled dough in the bag, zip it up, roll it out, and transfer it to your pan. The bags come in different sizes for regular and deep-dish pies and are available from many online sources (such as sugarcraft.com; $3 to $6 per bag).

Use store-bought dough

If you’re short on time (or patience), you can always use ready-made dough. In our tests, we preferred Pillsbury Just Unroll refrigerated pie crusts ($2.99), which have a nicely crisp texture (if slightly bland flavor) and Trader Joe’s Gourmet Pie Crusts ($3.49), which have a more buttery finish.

Crimp the edges

Crimping or fluting the edges of a double-crust pie seals the dough and keeps the filling from leaking out during baking. Even on a single-crust pie, crimping can create a helpful dam effect. There are many good techniques, but our favorite is to pinch the dough around the index finger of one hand using the thumb and forefinger of the other.

Keep Reading: