Homemade pie crust pastry is the gateway to endless possibilities when it comes to, well, pies. And if you have always bought ready-to-use shortcrust from the store and are afraid to make the switch, stay with me and by the end of this post I will have changed your mind.

To me, homemade will always beat store-bought. Not only because it’s fresh and you know what you are putting into it. But because it is cheaper. Now you may think, yeah, it might be cheaper, but you need to put some effort into it. Wrong. Homemade pie crust requires a level of effort that on a scale from 0 to 10 is maybe 1,5. And just to clarify, shortcrust is a lot easier than puff pastry. We’re talking shortcrust here. Puff pastry requires more effort and skill. But shortcrust doesn’t, so don’t even compare the two.

I started making my own pie crust when I moved to Sweden as a student on a tight budget. My diet consisted mostly of frozen vegetables that I would whip up with eggs and cheese into savoury pies. To make homemade shortcrust in its most basic form you only need butter, flour and salt. Items that I always have at home, so I never really had to specifically shop for. And even if I have to specifically buy them, 1 kg of flour and 500g of butter will give me more pie crusts than the equivalent of money spent on premade shortcrust from the store. Win win.

Homemade pie crust from scratch

So let’s start with the basics. The easiest way to make homemade shortcrust is to use a food processor. One batch will make enough dough to make a crust for a 24-cm pie tin. Here are the ingredients for one batch:

• 175 g flour (3/4 cup)
• 110 g cold butter (1/2 cup)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• about 60 ml cold water (1/4 cup)

Combine the butter, flour and salt into a food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Now comes the only “tricky” part: you need to add enough water for the dough to have the right texture. Depending on the type of flour, room temperature and humidity, you may not need to use the whole amount of it.

How to know when enough water is enough? Look at what is happening in the food processor. You need to add the water as the blades are rotating. Start by pouring half of the amount, you will see that the dough will start coming together. Keep pouring water until the dough gathers into a ball by itself. Ta-da! Done!

Don’t have a food processor? No worries, that was my case when I started making my pie crust in the student house. A regular electric mixer fitted with the dough hooks will do the trick. The only difference is that you need your butter softened to room temperature (or some more if you live in a cool climate like I do). If you have no appliances at all, just use your hands (and cold butter in that case).

A fun alternative to water? White wine! Yes, you can make pie crust with white wine, it’s perfect when you need to get rid of some cooking wine that’s been around for too long, or you have Prosecco leftovers that have gone flat.

High protein pie crust

In order to make a healthier high protein shortcrust you just need to tweak the recipe a little and sub part of the butter with another dairy product that has a higher protein and lower fat count, like cottage cheese. This is a switch I recently made in an effort to up my protein intake while also keeping the total calorie count of the dish lower.

The procedure will be fairly similar, with one small difference. For one portion we will be using the same amount of flour and salt as the classic recipe, but the butter will be limited to 50 g (which is about 1/4 cup). Blitz as usual until you have the coarse crumbs, then you start adding your high protein ingredient – like cottage cheese – until the dough gathers into a ball. So basically the cottage cheese here acts like the water (it does add hydration, too). There is no fixed amount (it depends on what you are adding), you need to add it little by little until it’s enough, but we’re talking 2-3 tbsp, more or less.

It was actually a colleague at work that recommended this trick to me, and I started experimenting. First, with cottage cheese, like she had said. Next time I didn’t have any, but there was a tub of Greek yogurt in the fridge that was begging to be used. And it worked perfectly, so next time I tried ricotta. Basically any dairy product with a similar texture to cottage cheese will work (so no milk or hard cheese, just to clarify). A great way to use up any leftovers you may have in the fridge before they go bad.

And for an even healthier tweak, sub regular flour for whole-wheat.

Egg white shortcrust

When talking about upping the protein in pie crust, we cannot forget about another fantastic ingredient that is egg. In Italy where I grew up, it is generally assumed that a shortcrust made with eggs – pasta frolla – usually contains sugar and is mostly used for sweet pies (crostata, anyone?).

So for savoury options, the general rule is that you want to use pâte brisée, which is neutral in flavour and contains no sugar (or only 1 tsp). The shortcrust recipe featured in this post is a variation of French pâte brisée. But what if we have leftover egg whites? (I know I always do, and there is only so much meringue you can have in your life.) Of course we can use them in our crossover shortcrust.

To make pie crust with egg whites we will follow the same steps as the dairy-enriched pie crust shown above. Start by blitzing the flour, butter and salt, and then you gradually add the egg whites until you get your dough.

For the proportion to make one sheet of pastry for one pie I have used the whites from 2 eggs. My eggs are medium, I am aware that average eggs in Sweden are generally smaller than average eggs in other countries. Two whites weigh in at 60 g, which is about the same amount of water we add to the basic recipe.

Homemade pie crust useful tips

A proper shortcrust dough should be easy to roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface. If you notice that your dough is too sticky, put it back in the food processor and mix in a little bit of flour. If, instead, it crumbles apart, you will need to add water (I normally just wet my hands and quickly knead it by hand).

Roll the dough out till it exceeds the size of your baking tin to ensure it will be big enough so the crust has even sides. To transfer it to a baking tin I usually roll it over the rolling pin and gently unroll it into the baking tin. Gently flatten the sides and bottom so that it neatly adheres to the tin. Press the rolling pin on the edges to cut out excess dough on the sides.

Prick the dough with a fork all over the bottom as well as on the sides to prevent it from inflating during baking. Alternatively, if you need to prebake your crust, you can use pie weights. Always – always – chill your pie crust before baking. Pop it in the freezer for 10 minutes, it’s all it takes if you’re in a hurry.

When from scratch make a double batch

Shortcrust freezes very well. If we are switching to homemade pie crust mainly because it’s cheaper, it might be worth to always make a double batch: one to use directly and one to store in the freezer. This way, next time there will be no food processor to wash up, so we’re also saving on dishes.

These are the proportions for a double batch, so you don’t need to count:

• 350 g flour (1,5 cups)
• 220 g butter (1 cup)
• 1 tsp salt
• 120 ml ice water (1/2 cup)

Pie & tart recipe inspiration

Feeling inspired to start you shortcrust from scratch journey and in need of filling ideas? Here are some:

• Leek and mushroom pie
• Radicchio and blue cheese tart
• Onion and cottage cheese pie
• Broccoli and cheese pie

A sweet version? Italian sweet shortcrust pasta frolla!

If you tried this recipe, let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you’re planning to try it another time, pin this recipe to Pinterest. Please consider subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Instagram and on Pinterest.