Are you afraid of pie crust? I used to be too. It used to turn out too stiff, or crumbly, and was impossible to work with! This tender and flakey sourdough pie crust is not only the most delicious pie crust you’ll ever taste, but it’s easy to work with!

Tender & Flakey Sourdough Pie Crust

I used to despise making pies. I never volunteered to do it, and when I had to do it, I was always stressed because I had such a hard time getting the pie dough to cooperate. One day my brother-in-law shared his pie dough recipe with me, and things have never been the same since! I now own a bakery and I am not afraid of making pie dough anymore!

Over the years, I’ve tweaked the original recipe here and there, until I felt like it was absolutely perfect. I thought it was perfect, until I started dabbling in the world of sourdough, that is. The only thing that could make this pie dough better was sourdough! That’s exactly how my tender and flakey sourdough pie crust was born! After some experimenting in the kitchen, I figured out the perfect formula for pie dough. It doesn’t only make the tastiest pie crust ever, but it’s very easy to work with! My four year old son even rolled out some dough and made his own pie with me today!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe:

Easy Recipe: This recipe is easy to follow and only uses few simple ingredients! It just uses one bowl which makes for less dishes to clean up afterwards!

Fool Proof: This tender & flakey sourdough pie crust is not only easy to make, but easy to work with! You can’t mess it up as long as you follow the directions, and it doesn’t crack or fall apart when rolling it out! You don’t even need to chill the dough if you don’t want to!

Delicious & Versatile: This pie crust is the most delicious I’ve ever had. Not only can you make sweet pies with it, but it’s good for savory ones as well! The possibilities are endless!

pie dough on a counter dusted with flour

Tips For This Recipe:

Cold Water – Make sure you use cold water! If you use warm water, the shortening and butter will melt into the dough, and the crust won’t turn out as flakey!
Chilled Butter – Don’t soften your butter! The cold butter is one of the keys to a flakey crust!
Cheese Grater – I use a cheese grater to grate the butter. It makes it much easier to mix into the flour than cubing.
Refrigerating the Dough – the great thing about this recipe is that you don’t have to refrigerate the dough! But you can do so if you’d like to!

How to Make Tender & Flakey Sourdough Pie Crust:

This is the only pie crust recipe I will ever use for the rest of my life! Not only do I use it for sweet pies, but for pot pies, homemade pop-tarts, and so much more! The sourdough gives it the most amazing texture and flavor, I could eat this crust plain with nothing on it!

Tools needed for making sourdough pie crust:

Large Mixing Bowl – for mixing the dough in.
Measuring Cups & Spoons – to measure ingredients.
Cheese Grater – for grating cold butter.
Bench Scraper – makes clean-up easier.

Ingredients Needed for Making sourdough pie crust:

All purpose flour – you can use regular all purpose flour, I have also had success with using Einkorn all-purpose flour!
Shortening or Lard – I prefer lard, but if you are vegetarian, or just prefer shortening, that works too!
Butter – Grass fed butter is the best, but any kind of butter will do. You can even use dairy-free butter to make this recipe dairy-free! Just don’t use any kind of whipped butter or margarine.
Egg – Just one egg, from your chickens or the supermarket!
Salt – I use sea salt in all of my recipes!
Sugar – Organic sugar is the best! But you can swap out any kind of sugar for this recipe.
Sourdough Starter – If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you can omit that ingredient and the crust will still turn out amazing! It will just be lacking a little bit of the flavor and texture that sourdough brings.

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Making the dough:

In your mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Give this a good mix with your hands or with a spoon to make sure it’s evenly incorporated in the flour. Next, you will add the shortening/lard, and butter. Make sure you use a cheese grater to grate the butter into small pieces, so it gets evenly distributed.

Now, it’s time to get your hands a little dirty! If you don’t like getting doughy, you can wear gloves to make for a little easier clean-up. Using your hands, squish the butter and lard into the flour. Keep doing this until there is no more loose flour left. You should have a bowl full of pea-sized chunks of flour. When the fats are fully combined, it’s time to add the egg and sourdough starter. I make a well in the middle of the bowl to put the egg and starter into. This way, when I add the water, I can swish it around with my finger to help the egg get evenly incorporated into the dough.

Add the water a little bit at a time, you may not need to use all of it. Each time you add it, gently fold it in, trying to get all of the dry bits wet. You don’t want to add too much, or the dough will become sticky. You just want to add enough to where the dough comes together and will hold its shape.

Using the Dough

Now that your dough is fully mixed, it’s time to use it! If you are making a pie, this recipe yields enough for a top and bottom crust. There may be a little extra you can use to make tarts with! Roll the dough out on a floured surface. If you aren’t refrigerating the dough, make sure you generously flour the surface so the dough doesn’t stick.