Mini Pie Crust (VIDEO)
Once you try this incredibly quick, easy, and super flaky homemade Mini Pie Crust recipe, you will never want to buy those sad-looking supermarket mini pie shells ever again! This all butter recipe is absolutely delicious and requires no fancy tools or special pie pan. There is also no need to blind bake these mini crusts and they work perfectly for tartlets, mini pies, and mini quiche!
Servings: 11 mini pie crust shells
Calories: 550kcal
Ingredients
Pie dough
- 375 g All purpose flour
- 270 g Unsalted butter 82% fat, use it very cold
- 120 g Water use it very cold
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix flour and salt until fully combined and place it into the freezer for 5-10 minutes
- Cut cold butter into small chunks and place it into the freezer for 5-10 minutes
- Once all ingredients are nicely chilled, add very cold butter chunks into flour and rub the mixture between your fingers until it becomes a sand like consistency.
- Add very cold water into the dough, a small amount at a time, and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon after each addition
- Start working the dough with your hands. First, it will look crumby but it should come together in the next minute or so. No need to knead the dough, stop mixing it as soon as it comes together. Remember, leave in some butter chunks, do not overwork the dough, and do not use a mixer
- Form a disk, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours
- After 2 hours, take the pie dough disk out of the fridge and let it rest few minutes on the kitchen counter. The dough should stay cold but slightly warmed up to be able to roll it out without breaking it
- Alternatively, transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and start rolling it out into a rectangle of 42x30 cm / 16x12 inches. No need to add too much flour while rolling, the pie dough should be cold enough not to stick to the kitchen counter. If at any point the dough gets too warm, pop it back into the freezer to chill for a minute then continue
- Check the size of your muffin pan holes. The diameter of the dough circle should equal the size of the muffin tin holes (from the back) in the following way: 2x side + 1x bottom, in my case is was 11 cm / 4 inches
- With the help of a cookie cutter, cut out circles of the dough that will fit your muffin pan holes
- Flip your muffin tin and slightly press down the dough on the cavities of the tin.
- Chill the pie dough again now in the freezer for 10 minutes
- Pre-heat oven to 200 C / 372 F (no fan)
- Take the cupcake tin out of the freezer and bake the mini pie crust in the following way: 20 minutes on the tin, then carefully remove them from the tin, apply a light egg wash (egg yolk + milk), and bake for further 5 minutes
- The pie crust is ready when it is baked even golden brown
Video
Notes
- Leave some bigger butter chunks in the dough mixture - this will encourage flaky pie texture on the pie crust - no need to fully incorporate the butter into the flour
- I recommend using every other cavity on your muffin pan so that when the crust puffs up during baking, they won´t touch each other
- While rolling and working with the dough, do not force it, do not stretch it. Always work with a dough that is cold enough to be able to handle but not too cold to break it
Nutrition
Calories: 550kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 97mg | Sodium: 298mg | Potassium: 78mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 1125IU | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 3mg