This easy flaky butter pie crust is so good, and so easy, that you’ll never buy pie crust again!
Let’s talk pie crust.
Updated January 8, 2018
Let’s talk about an easy, melt in your mouth support system for all your favorite fillings. Let’s talk about butter, and flour, and the delightfully rich and flaky marriage of those two ingredients.
Seriously, I have a confession to make.
I’d rather have pie than birthday cake.
There. I said it. No, I wasn’t traumatized by frosting as a child. And it’s not that I don’t like cake. But these days, a slice of cake seems like just too much sweet, and cake tends to be around for days. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, except of course for the good ole waistline.
Pie just seems so much simpler though you know?
And then there’s that whole ice cream melting into it thing. That is definitely a thing I love about pie, which isn’t strictly about pie of course. But pie without ice cream is kind of like Elvis without Blue Suede Shoes. You find yourself thinking – what’s the point?

Pie Crust by Any Other Name…
So we are talking pie crust today, or shortcrust as it is more widely known. Here in the US we typically say pie crust or pie dough. In the UK and other English speaking locales, they call it shortcrust. In France, its called pate brisee.
Want to know more about these differences, and some technical aspects of pie crust? Check this out on For Love of the Table. I can’t be the only food geek here who is interested in this kind of thing right?
Are those crickets?
Its actually easier than anyone thinks to make pie crust.
Or maybe its just easier than I thought to make pie crust?
I wanted to have a good basic recipe for an easy buttery and flaky crust that could be made into both sweet (blueberry pie! apple pie! chocolate pie!) and savory versions (quiche all the ways!). Because if you’re going to have pie it should be GOOD right?

For me, the best pie crusts are all butter pie crusts. You can also use lard, or Crisco, but I like the richness of butter, and I like frankly find it soothing to work the butter into the flour. Also, I’m a vegetarian, so lard isn’t happening in my kitchen anymore.
This is my current go to recipe for pie crust. You can see this Easy Flaky Butter Pie Crust in action here, as a crust for quiche, and here, as a pie crust.
I love that the Easy Flaky Butter Pie Crust can be made quickly and turned into breakfast quiche in no time, or made in advance and left chilling in the refrigerator for when you’re ready. Because we all need our lives to be a BIT easier, am I right?
Do you have a favorite pie crust recipe? And tell me – birthday cake or pie?
Easy Flaky Butter Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1 Cup Butter (or 2 Sticks)
- 1 Large Egg
- 1/4 Cup Milk
- 1 Large Egg, Beaten to use as an egg wash
Instructions
- Slice cold butter into pats.
- Whisk salt and flour together.
- Add butter in and using a pastry cutter mix it together until it forms a sablage, or looks really, really crumbly and there isn’t much flour left that hasn’t been incorporated into the crumbles.
- Form a well in the sablage by digging your fist down in to the center, and then add in the egg and milk.
- Mix the egg and milk in with the sablage until a dough forms.
- Form the dough into a ball, and then pat the ball down so it is more of a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour, and up to a day. When you bring it out of the refrigerator, give it a few minutes to soften so that you can roll it out, but don’t let it take too long, or come to room temperature, or the butter fat will start to melt.
- Place the dough on a well floured surface and/or parchment paper. Roll the dough out to your desired thickness for a pie, quiche, or galette.
- Either line a pie pan with it for a traditional pie or quiche, or place on parchment paper in the center of a baking sheet and fill with your desired toppings.
- Brush the sides of the crust with the beaten egg/egg wash, so that the crust bakes to a warm golden brown color.
- Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until the filling is done and the pie crust is golden brown.