Perfect Homemade Piecrust

The first step to making a delicious pie from scratch is mastering
homemade pie dough. Our Test Kitchen cooks like to use butter for its rich
flavor, and they avoid overworking the dough for an ultra-flaky crust.

The Best Piecrust Recipe

11⁄4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1⁄4 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter,
cut into 1⁄4-inch cubes
3 Tbs. very cold water

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter pieces no larger than small peas.

Add the water and mix with a fork just until the dough pulls together. Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disk. (Though many dough recipes call for chilling the dough, this dough should be rolled out immediately for the best results.)

Lightly flour the work surface, then flatten the disk with 6 to 8 gentle taps of the rolling pin. Lift the dough and give it a quarter turn.

Lightly dust the top of the dough or the rolling pin with flour as needed, then roll out into a round at least 12 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick. Makes one 9-inch pie crust.