Sourdough Pie Crust Recipe

SOURDOUGH PIE CRUST - FEATURE RECIPE IMAGE

A tender, flaky sourdough pie crust that can be used for sweet or savory pies. You can use it for a top or bottom crust, or both! Ferment this pie crust for up to 48 hours for an even more tender and flavorful crust!

Course Dessert, Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword Sourdough Discard

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Fermentation Time 1

Servings Pie Crust

Calories 2801kcal

Equipment

Pie Dish 1.4L / 1.47Q

Ingredients

250 g All Purpose Flour
5 g Salt (or to taste)
10 g Sugar (optional - see notes)
230 g Unsalted Butter must be COLD
200 g Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard
10 g White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
50 g Iced Water just in case

Instructions

This dough makes enough pastry for a top and bottom crust. If only need the top or bottom, just halve the amounts listed.
Add all purpose flour, salt and sugar to a large mixing bowl and stir together until well combined. Set aside for now.
Grate the cold butter into a bowl. If the butter starts to melt or is very soft once grated, place the bowl into the freezer. This will help to firm the butter up and make the next step much easier. I cannot stress enough how important it is for the butter to be COLD.
Place the cold, grated butter into the bowl with the flour, salt and sugar and use a spatula, pastry cutter or simply your finger tips to coat the butter in the flour. You want the butter to stay cold, so try to touch it as little as you can.
Now, add the sourdough starter or discard and vinegar and bring the mixture into a dry, shaggy dough. It's best just to use your hands to squeeze the pastry dough together. It will be a rough, dry dough.
If the dough really isn't coming together at all, add a little iced water until you are able to bring it together.
Tip the rough dough out onto the counter, divide the dough into two pieces and bring each piece into a rough ball. Wrap each ball of pastry dough in parchment paper and squash it down into a disc shape. Wrap each disc in cling wrap and place both discs into the fridge.
If you prefer to just refrigerate as one ball, that's fine too. You can just divide the pastry into two pieces when you want to roll it out.
Leave the dough a minimum of one hour to fully hydrate and become cold. You can leave the dough in the fridge for up to 48 hours before you use it.
When you are ready to use the sourdough pastry to make a pie crust, take the dough out of the fridge and unwrap it. Dust the dough lightly with flour and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to your desired size.
This recipe makes enough for a top and bottom crust. I have used a 1.4L pie dish and it generously filled the dish with some to spare.

Notes

BUTTER

The butter MUST BE COLD. Frozen, grated butter is best. If you have time, grate the butter and place it into the freezer 30 minutes before you want to make the dough.

SUGAR

You can leave the sugar out if you prefer but I think you'll get a better colored crust if you leave it in.

FERMENTATION TIME

You don't have to ferment this pie crust. You can use it after it has been in the fridge for just one hour, but you will get a flakier, more flavorsome pie crust if you leave the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours and up to 48 hours.

SOURDOUGH STARTER OR SOURDOUGH DISCARD

You can use either active, bubbly starter or sourdough discard (unfed) in this recipe. Make sure whatever you use is 100% hydration. You'll get the best results using sourdough starter that has been fed within the last 24 hours, but you can use discard that's up to a week old.

Nutrition