The Secret to Perfect Pie Crust (Plus Recipe)

You won’t believe the secret ingredient that makes a perfect pie crust. It’s not frozen butter or special flour. You’ll be shocked–don’t tell Grandma!

What’s the secret to perfect pie crust? That tender, flaky taste that melts in your mouth? You’re never going to believe this.

It’s not lard.

It’s not frozen butter.

It’s not special flour.

Are you ready?

It’s vodka.

Yep, the very same vodka we used to make Homemade Vanilla Extract is the secret ingredient for perfect pie crust. Vodka has no flavor, evaporates quickly, and prevents gluten from forming–so you end up with a tender, flaky crust.

Pie crust is not one of those mysterious baking challenges. You can do this! If you can make cookies, you can make pie crust. 🙂

And how cool would it be to bring a homemade pie to your next family gathering? Pretty amazing, I’d say. Let’s go!

Tools Used to Make Perfect Pie Crust

Here are the tools I recommend to make this recipe quickly and easily:

Kitchen Aid food processor: the fastest way to combine all ingredients

Pastry cutter/dough blender: if you prefer to make pie crust by hand

Rolling pin: for rolling out your pie crust

9″ Pyrex pie plate: the clear glass makes it easy to see if your crust is rolled out enough

Perfect Pie Crust Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup cold butter

1 Tablespoon vodka

1/2 cup ice water

Instructions:

Put the flour and salt in your food processor. Cut the butter into chunks and put it on top.

Pulse it together until the butter is incorporated and looks like little pebbles in the flour.

Add the water and the vodka, then mix in short bursts. It will look like a crumbly mess and then will magically hold together.

Dump the dough onto the counter, form it into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes. This will allow the butter (which has probably softened through all that mixing) to firm up again.

After 30 minutes, sprinkle a little flour on the counter, unwrap the disk and start rollin’.

Don’t worry about making a perfect circle, just roll it out as best as you can. Every now and then, set your pie plate on top to see if the crust will fit.

I called this “good enough,” smooshed the cracks together, and prepared to Make The Transfer.

Transferring the dough to the pie plate is usually the toughest part. I’ve had the best luck with rolling the dough onto my rolling pin and unrolling it over the pie plate.

Press the dough in gently. You can either make fancy scalloped edges with the crust, or just cut the excess off like I did. I figure it tastes the same whether the edges are fancy or not. (Notice the smooshed-together crust repair on the right.)

Add the pie fixings of your choice and bake according to that recipe. You could even freeze the crust, unbaked, if you won’t need the pan for a bit–just don’t put a frozen glass pan into a hot oven. Yipes!

But do me a favor, OK? Don’t tell Grandma I put vodka in my pie crust or I’ll get a lecture about eternal damnation.