Sourdough Pie Crust (Extra Flaky!)

With only a few ingredients and a little technique, making this flaky Sourdough Pie Crust is as easy as pie!

Making homemade pie crust can be intimidating, but this sourdough discard pie crust recipe is foolproof and comes together with minimal effort. I walk through tips for ensuring an extra flaky pie crust that can be a vehicle for quiches, fruit or custard pies, galettes, or hand pies.

Plus, you can use active sourdough starter or sourdough discard for the recipe. The sourdough tenderizes the pie crust and lends a subtle, complex flavor. It’s excellent for savory or sweet pies.

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Why Add Sourdough to Pie Crust?

Sourdough starter is an acidic ingredient with a pH typically between 3.5 to 4. Many believe acidity inhibits gluten development, thus creating a more tender pie crust.

In this way, the sourdough starter, or sourdough discard, functions similarly to adding vodka or apple cider vinegar to a pie crust recipe. It also works to tenderize sourdough biscuits, shortcakes, and scones.

Another benefit, of course, is the tangy flavor of sourdough.

A sourdough starter is filled with many species of probiotic bacteria that give sourdough bread its acidic flavor. Adding sourdough to pie crust imparts some complexity that only comes from fermentation. Nevertheless, this pie crust recipe is not necessarily tangy because there isn’t much sourdough starter used.

Finally, this is another novel way to use sourdough discard to minimize waste.

Sourdough discard is a versatile ingredient, and using it in pie crust is an easy way to incorporate it into a foundational recipe like pie crust.

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👨‍🏫 Tips for Making Extra Flaky Pie Crust

These pastry tips will help you make the flakiest sourdough pie crust possible!

The tips are also relevant to making rough puff pastry, like in these Sourdough Pop Tarts.

1. Keep the Ingredients Cold:
   • Keeping all ingredients cold is crucial. A flaky and tender crust is developed from minimal gluten development. Gluten makes the pastry tough and chewy, so you want to avoid too much gluten development when making pie crust.
   • It’s best to refrigerate the sourdough starter, use cold butter, and only use ice water. If your dough gets warm at all, refrigerate it immediately. Finally, refrigerate the pie dough before rolling it out.
2. Freeze the Pie Crust Before Baking:
   • Freeze your pie crust for about 15 minutes as the oven preheats. After rolling out your dough and crimping it, the pie crust dough can start to warm. The crust also needs to rest in the pie plate, which will help it set and not droop or shrink in the oven.
   • The other benefit of freezing your pie crust before baking is that it helps create flaky layers. A flaky pie crust is developed from steam between layers of fat and flour. The quick freeze produces more steam when the pie crust hits the hot oven.
   • Note: Always place the pie plate with crust on a baking sheet, especially after the plate has been frozen. This reduces the risk of thermal shock (particularly for glass or Pyrex). For this reason, I prefer using metal or ceramic pie plates.
3. Laminate the Pie Dough:
   • This tip is optional to make pie dough, but it’s a straightforward technique to add extra layers of butter and flakiness to your pie dough. Lamination typically refers to a series of folds using a butter packet to make pastries like sourdough croissants or rough puff pastry. For pie crust, you can similarly fold the dough to recreate this process.
   • To laminate pie crust, roll it out into a long rectangle after an hour’s rest in the refrigerator. Use a bench scraper to lift and fold the dough into thirds and produce a letter packet. That’s it!
4. Don’t Add Too Much Water:
   • Adding too much water will overhydrate pie dough. This leads to gluten development, the enemy of a tender and flaky pastry. The dough will continue to hydrate as it rests and is rolled out.
   • At first, the dough may seem dry. However, remember that a 100% hydration sourdough starter is 50% water (and 50% flour). With a few tablespoons of ice water plus the sourdough starter, the dough comes together with only a little mixing and resting.
5. Use a High-fat or European-style Butter:
   • High-fat butter makes the absolute best and flaky pie crust. This is because European-style butter has a smaller percentage of water, resulting in a more tender, flavorful, and flakier pie crust.
   • My favorite high-fat butter brands commonly found are Kerrygold, Plugrá, Nellie’s Free Range, Cabot Extra Creamy Premium Butter, Vermont Creamery, and Vital Farms. Any brand above 80% butterfat will work.

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🛠 Tools Needed

Click on the toggles below for more information, recommendations, and possible substitutes.

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

Click on the toggles below for more information, recommendations, and possible substitutes.

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👨‍🍳 How to Make Sourdough Pie Crust

This recipe makes one 9-inch pie crust. Double the ingredients for a double-crust recipe.

1. Mix Flour and Salt

Add ¼ cup of cold water to a small measuring cup and set it in the freezer while you mix the pie crust.

Set aside a long piece of plastic wrap or beeswax to wrap the pie dough once mixed.

Mix 125 grams of all-purpose flour (one cup) and ¼ teaspoon of sea salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

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2. Add Butter

Use a bench scraper or a butter knife to cut 113 grams (one stick, ½ cup) of cold unsalted butter into ½-inch cubes.

Toss the cold butter cubes into the bowl until they’re coated in flour. Use your hands to smash the butter into flat, uneven shards.

A mix of sizes works best- some the size of walnut halves and others the size of peas.

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3. Add Sourdough Starter, Water, and Mix

Add 75 grams of cold sourdough starter and two tablespoons of ice water to the bowl. Use a fork to toss it together.

While tossing, add another tablespoon or two of ice water to the bowl until clumps begin to form. The dough will still seem quite dry at this point.

Use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl into one (mostly) cohesive mass.

This is a small kneading motion in the bowl and maybe a couple of squeezes to bring the dough together. The sourdough starter should distribute itself into the dough and start to come together, but will still appear somewhat dry with large pieces of butter remaining.

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4. Wrap and Rest the Dough

Dump the dough and any dry pieces of flour remaining onto the plastic wrap or beeswax. Wrap the dough in the wrap and smush it together with the palm of your hand into a 1-inch thick disk.

Place in the refrigerator to rest and hydrate for at least an hour and up to two days.

Note: This process is similar to the technique used to make pâte brisée- fraisage. The heel of your hand spreads the butter to create long streaks and pockets of butter. These large smears of butter will lead to a flakier crust.

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5. Laminate the Dough (optional)

For an extra flaky crust, laminate the dough. This step is optional, but folding it is an easy and fast way to triple the layers of pie dough and is similar to making croissants or rough puff pastry!

To laminate pie crust:

1. Lightly flour a work surface. Place the refrigerated pie dough on the surface for a few minutes to let the butter soften slightly, making rolling it out easier.
2. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a long rectangle about ¼-inch thick. Flour the dough and rolling pin to prevent sticking as you work.
3. Use a bench scraper to lift and fold the top third of the dough down upon itself. Repeat the same motion on the bottom third of the dough to form a letter packet of dough.
4. Wrap the pie dough in plastic wrap or beeswax and refrigerate it for at least an hour to rest before rolling it out according to your recipe’s instructions.

At this point, the dough can also be frozen for up to a couple of months.

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6. Roll Out and Bake

Your crust is ready to be rolled out and baked according to your recipe. If you notice any sticking while rolling out, you can use parchment paper to help prevent sticking. Simply roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper.

To roll out the pie crust:

1. Lightly flour a work surface. Place the refrigerated pie dough on the surface for a few minutes to let the butter soften slightly, making rolling it out easier.
2. Use a rolling pin to roll out the pie crust in its desired shape. I find it’s easiest to work from the center of the dough, roll in one direction evenly, rotate or flip the dough, and repeat.
3. For a standard 9-inch circular pie plate, roll the dough out into an 11 or 12-inch circle. Fold the dough in half onto itself or rolled up around the rolling pin to transfer it to the pie plate. Let the dough slump down into the pan and lightly press it into the bottom and sides. Trim the pastry with scissors to leave about an inch of dough overhang. Tuck the overhang under the dough and crimp the dough with your fingers or use fork tines to seal the edges.
4. If blind baking (see the section below for instructions), dock the bottom of the dough all over with the tines of the fork. This will prevent the dough from puffing up during baking.
5. Place the dough in the freezer to set in the pan while you preheat the oven. You can also wrap the pie plate and freeze it for up to two months.

Note: If the dough is melting or sticking to the work surface while rolling it out, chill it! Transfer it to a baking sheet or cutting board and place it in the refrigerator for five minutes.

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How to Blind Bake

Blind baking is a common practice to partially cook or par-bake, a pie crust before filling it. A popular pie that is blind-baked is a pumpkin or sweet potato pie.

Blind baking ensures that the bottom of the crust is crisp and fully baked. The step helps prevent a soggy bottom, especially for custard or pudding pies.

You can blind-bake this sourdough pie crust after it is rolled out, placed in its pie plate, docked (pricked all over the bottom with a fork), and frozen for at least 15 minutes.

To blind bake:

1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF (218ºC).
2. Remove the pie crust from the freezer and place two overlapping pieces of aluminum foil or parchment paper over the pie crust so the edges are covered.
3. Pour dried beans, lentils, coins, or pie weights on the foil or parchment paper and fill the entire pie plate. Be sure to press into the sides and crevices of the pie plate to prevent shrinking (including any crimps).
4. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the pie crust edges start to set and turn golden brown.
5. Carefully remove the foil and weights and continue to bake for 5-10 minutes or until the pie shell is golden brown (can take longer depending on the pie plate used and how your oven distributes heat). If the edges are browning too quickly, use a pie crust protector or a ring of aluminum foil to shield the edges.

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What to Make with Sourdough Pie Crust

Sourdough pie crust is remarkably versatile!

It can be used in both savory and sweet applications. I’ve used sourdough pie crust to make custard pies like pumpkin pie, fruit-filled pies like apple pie, this sourdough strawberry galette, and quiche! Furthermore, the dough can be used as a topping for chicken pot pie or hand pies.

This recipe makes one 9-inch pie crust, but it’s easy to double the recipe for a double-crust pie. Divide the dough in half once mixed and keep both halves in plastic wrap separately.

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❓ FAQs:

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