How to roll out Pie Crust
I am so glad you will join me in doing one of my favorite things today. Making a beautiful pie crust… I have heard from a lot of people… I can kind of make a pie crust but it never looks good but… as long as it tastes good… and although, that is a very true statement… I love it when I have both! Now, you are going to be able to have the same!
Making pie crust was so intimidating for me and I had lots of failures and made lots of mistakes, but now I am hoping I can help you not make the same mistakes I did… and honestly…now, it is one of my favorite things… and nothing beats a good homemade crust. I wasn’t a pie fan until I tasted the buttery flaky melt in my mouth goodness… and now… I can’t go back… I have a feeling you will feel the same way…
Ok… you are going to need a flat, solid surface… i like my wood board but I have rolled out on my counter as well… you will also need a rolling pin… I like the bigger/ longer rolling pins… the little ones seem to make it harder to roll the dough evenly. You will need flour, I just use an all purpose flour, a pie tin… I use a 9 inch tin… these are my favorite… ill put a link below to where you can find them… and you need some way to cut your dough… I am going to use this pizza cutter but…in the bakery I use this cool 12 inch circle cutter… it is so awesome and helps speed up the process when I have to make hundreds of pies… but most people don’t really have these lying around…If you really wanted to be precise, you could find a bowl or make a template, but a pizza cutter should work just fine. And… last but not least… you need your pie dough… if you haven’t made your pie dough yet… check out my other videos on how to make easy amazing pie dough… my technique is different than what you will usually find but I find it is faster, easier and better! You totally can conquer pie dough!
I’m going to take my dough patty… what should I call this… patty is kind of a weird word for pie dough… hmmm. Oh well. I love to roll the dough straight from the fridge. It is so much easier to handle. You don’t have to roll it cold but I highly recommend it.
I’ll roll it on its side so that it gets more in a circle shape and kind of seals the edges just in case there are any cracks or anything… if you have a crack in the side your dough ball, that crack just will get bigger and bigger and it will drive you crazy so I try and do the precautionary work beforehand. Now… I’m going to stick the dough flat side on your floured surface and Flour the top of the dough as well.
Now, you I am going to roll with a gentle pressure and roll one way back and forth. It will start to turn into an oblong shape, now, I pick up the oval, rotate it and roll back and forth this way.
Now… you may ask… why can’t you just change the direction of the rolling, well… the main reason I don’t is because… I have to pick up the dough to make sure it isn’t sticking to the counter. I like to feel the dough… I like to make sure I can still handle it. It will make my life soooo much easier if I don’t let it stick…
ok… now I’m going to rotate it again… if it is starting to stick at all… throw a little more flour on the surface… or… if the top is getting sticky from some of the shortening peeking through the top of the dough… this can happen and it is totally normal. What happens is…if you remember when we mixed the dough… you don’t mix the shortening all the way so it still has little pieces that will flatten out Between the dough and create those flaky layers. Sometimes the shortening isn’t necessarily in between the layers and that is why it can peek out the top… soooo… add a little flour. It will do the trick!
In between each of my rotations, I also take and kind of reshape the oblong dough back into an oval shape. Sometimes you will get an edge that starts to fan out to one side and that is no fun either…. So… reshape Into an oval… you can thank me later…
Ok… you want to be careful when you roll not to push so hard that it indents the dough or creates a bumpy effect. You also want to avoid putting extra pressure when you roll the edges… if you do that, you will end up with thinner edges and we are trying to get this as even as we can.
You are going to keep rotating and rolling and re-flouring until your dough is about as thick as 2 quarters stacked…now…I’m not quite sure the measurement of that is… check…
I know I’ve said this already but… make sure you can handle your dough and it is NOT sticking to the counter… at all. you also want to be able to cut a 12 inch circle out of it… you can measure this with your template, your big 12 inch cutter… or… really you can take your pie tin and flip it upside down on your dough… you will want about 3 inches around the dough… it doesn’t need to be perfect but getting it pretty even will make your pie easier to shape.
Ok… so since you most likely don’t have an oversized cookie cutter, I am going to use the pizza cutter to cut a circle on the outside of the pie tin. Remember… you already know you can handle the dough because you have been rotating it and making sure your surface is floured.
I am going to move away these extra pieces and put it in the pan… just a note… i am left handed so maybe use your best hand to hold the dough. I will take my left and and stick it above the dough and take my right hand and fold the dough over my left hand so that my left hand is holding the dough… I will grab my pie tin and gently but quickly flip the dough into the pan… now… if you didn’t get it as centered as you would like… I like to move it by hopping it around the pan… don’t pull it. You don’t want to stretch the dough. I’ll hop it around by popping up the dough lightly and moving it slightly while it is not touching the bottom or sides of the pan.
When you get it pretty centered, you will notice there is a little air pocket right in the crease of the pie tin… once again… you don’t want to press it down and stretch or rip the dough… so I will take one hand and lightly lift the edge of the dough whole my other hand gently pushes it into that crease. I will rotate all the way around the pan until the pie dough sits nicely in the pie tin.
Now the best part! So obviously you have an overhang over the pie tin… so what I do is I fold it under itself just to where even when folded under it will still be a little over the edge of the pan. I don’t want to fold it so much that it folds into the sidewall of the pie tin. You just fold it softly and don’t worry about squishing or squeezing it together yet… I move around the tin until I have folded the whole circle. So, while you were doing that, it may have pulled up on the dough that we so nicely pushed into the crease at the bottom… So we just are going to relieve some of that tension by pushing the sides every so slightly so that it releases the dough and settles back into that crease.
Now we get to style it! I love the look of a thick crust at the top… it makes it look so gourmet and good… the crazy thing is… the crust is the same as any old fashioned style that you have seen but just that top edge is a little thicker… And… it is so good, I love to eat that extra crust.
I style this pie by taking my pointer fingers and placing them on top of the dough right on the edge and then sliding my thumb underneath the fold and pulling the pointer fingers towards me and pushing my thumb away from me. It is a motion that looks something like this. After pushing pulling pinching…
I move around the pie tin. I now place my pointer finger where the other pointer was and do the same thing. Each time placing one pointer finger in the indentation that was made with the other hand. I like to make my ruffles pretty distinct and exaggerated because as the pie cooks it will shrink a little, puff up and it will lose some of its shape. So, I want to make sure after it bakes, it will still have these beautiful decorative edges. I work my way all the way around the pie and a lot of times you won’t have the exact amount of space for your pointer to make it evenly around the pie, but that is ok… you can just adjust some of the other ruffles to make it look good.
Now one of the secrets of pinching like this is that you need to make sure you are pulling the dough so that the outside of the ruffle is just beyond the pie tin. but… don’t stretch the dough to get that done… take your pointer finger in the indent of the ruffle, make sure you put your finger all the way to the bottom of the tin and you will feel some extra dough padding right there… you can push that with your finger gently… don’t make another huge indent, just lightly push it in and up… it will move toward the top and push that ruffle out a little bit more.
I go back over all of my indentations and do this just to give it a little extra room up top because it will shrink a little. If you are happy with your exaggerated ruffles… then this baby is done. Look at that beauty!
Your pie is now ready to put in the freezer or fridge. You can also fill it right away if you are in a hurry but I like working with a frozen or cold pie crust. If you are saving to bake later, for sure put it in the freezer. I would put it in the freezer and as soon as it is frozen and hard enough meaning it won’t squish if it got bumped etc… I would take a ziplock gallon sized bag and slide it in. You can now keep this pie shell in the freezer for months. If your pie shell won’t fit in a ziplock bag, you can always wrap it with stretch time, cling wrap to help it so it won’t get freezer burn, dry out or get ruined.
