How to Make Pie Crust in a Mixer
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With pie season here, you may be baking more pies than usual! And if you are looking for a quicker and easier way to make pie crust, I’m showing you how to make pie crust in a mixer!
If you want to level up your pie baking skills, check out some of my other posts like Tips for Golden Brown Pie Crust, Should You Cook Pie Filling Before Baking? or my tutorial How to Roll Out a Pie.
When I first started baking pies, I was under the impression that pie crust had to be made by hand. It was a labor of love, I felt. It needed to be handled with care and the only way to do that was suffer through mixing it by hand, every single time.
Well, that was until my bake shop started making more pies than my two hands could keep up with that, I finally threw them up (flour flying everywhere) and thought, enough is enough! There has to be a better way to make pie crust, I’m going to figure out how to make pie crust in a mixer!
Making pie crust in a mixer is so much easier, faster, and it yields the same buttery and flaky pie crust that I was making by hand for all those years. If you’ve been wondering how to make pie crust in a mixer, you’re in the right place.
Even though I’m usually only baking one or maybe two pies at a time, I use my mixer to make the pie crust every single time! Once you do this, I bet you’ll never go back to making pie dough by hand!
Ingredients
Cairnspring Mills Organic All Purpose Flour (use code MIMIORGANIC15 for 15% off your order!)
Tools Needed
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Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
Add your dry ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. This would include flour, sugar, and salt or spices, if using. Mix on low for 2 to 3 rotations just to combine the ingredients. (Swirling around the bowl before locking into the mixer, using a spatula, or stirring with your hand also works just as well)!
Step 2
Get your cold water ready. You want to have all ingredients ready before adding the butter to the mixer. This ensures the butter is the coldest it can be!
Step 3
Chop the butter into small cubes, the smaller the cubes the flakier the crust (as always)! I like to cut my sticks of butter into at least 4 pieces, and the small cubes from there.
Step 4
Add the butter into the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on low until the butter and flour mixture looks like wet sand. You want to see little clumps of butter and flour, but you don’t want to see large pieces of butter that have not been squished. This is the step where in hand mixing, you’d squish the butter into the flour.
Step 5
As soon as the mixture looks like wet sand, with the mixer on low still, immediately add in all the water. I like to use my Pyrex measuring cup for this, that way it’s easy to pour in.
Step 6
As soon as the mixture comes together, stop mixing immediately. It’s better to under mix than to over mix. You will still have to handle the dough with your hands a little bit to form it, so you can always mix in a few bits of flour or butter if necessary.
Step 7
Remove the dough from the mixer and weigh it to separate your top and bottom pie crust. If you are using pie crust for a top and bottom, the top should weigh about 6 ounces (170 grams) and the bottom should weigh about 11 ounces (312 grams). If you are making galettes, you can divide the dough into 2 equal pieces, about 8 ounces (250 grams) each.
Step 8
Place it on two separate pieces of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Store in the fridge for at least 24 hours before using.
Baker's Tips
- Make sure your butter is cold! Cold and straight from the fridge will make the most buttery and flaky pie crust. If you get hot hands, then chop your butter ahead of time and then place it back in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes to ensure cold butter as this is key for using a mixer.
- Make sure to add dry ingredients into your mixer first.
- Have your water ready to go as you want everything ready to go before adding in the butter, this ensures it stays the coldest. I like to add my water to a Pyrex measuring cup with a spout, this way it’s really easy to pour into the mixer as it’s mixing.
- Stop the mixer sooner rather than later. It’s always best to stop your mixer sooner rather than later. You can always mix in little bits by hand if you have to.
- Be sure to always wrap up pie crust tightly in plastic wrap to ensure it does not dry out before refrigerating.
FAQ's
Yes, you can absolutely make pie crust in a stand mixer. I would not make pie crust using a hand mixer as the beaters have a tendency to whip butter more than a paddle attachment. I can’t say for sure as my hand mixer and I are not really friends… but if you’re besties with yours, give it a try and follow my tips for success. If you like it and the pie crust turns out well, that’s all that matters!
No, don’t use your whisk attachment or dough hook. These attachments are not good for making pie crust as they don’t imitate your hands squishing the butter. The dough hook doesn’t provide enough real estate and the whisk can end up whipping butter too much if it becomes warm.
Yes, if you want to use unsalted butter you can do that as well. Just be sure to add 1/4 teaspoon of salt into the dry ingredients if you are using unsalted butter.
I have found that pie dough will stay good in the fridge for up to 24 to 48 hours. Any longer than that and I find it’s not great. If you don’t plan to roll out your pie the following day, my rule is throw the dough in the freezer. Then thaw it out when you are ready to use it.
Absolutely! Just be sure pie dough is wrapped well in plastic wrap. Just throw it in the freezer and it will be good for up to a couple months. When you’re ready to use pie dough, just thaw it in the fridge for 24 hours before using.
Craving More?
How to Make Pie Crust in a Mixer
Equipment
Ingredients
- 227 grams all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cane sugar
- 7 tablespoons cold water
- 170 grams salted butter (cold)
Instructions
- Add the flour and cane sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for 2 to 3 rotations just to combine the ingredients. (Swirling around the bowl before locking into the mixer, using a spatula, or stirring with your hand also works just as well)!
- Get your cold water ready. You want to have all ingredients ready before adding the butter to the mixer. This ensures the butter is the coldest it can be!
- Chop the butter into small cubes, the smaller the cubes the flakier the crust (as always)! I like to cut my sticks of butter into at least 4 pieces, and the small cubes from there.
- Add the butter into the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on low until the butter and flour mixture looks like wet sand. You want to see little clumps of butter and flour, but you don’t want to see large pieces of butter that have not been squished. This is the step where in hand mixing, you’d squish the butter into the flour.
- As soon as the mixture looks like wet sand, with the mixer on low still, immediately add in all the water. I like to use my Pyrex measuring cup for this, that way it’s easy to pour in.
- As soon as the mixture comes together, stop mixing immediately. It’s better to under mix than to over mix. You will still have to handle the dough with your hands a little bit to form it, so you can always mix in a few bits of flour or butter if necessary.
- Remove the dough from the mixer and weigh it to separate your top and bottom pie crust. If you are using pie crust for a top and bottom, the top should weigh about 6 ounces (170 grams) and the bottom should weigh about 11 ounces (312 grams). If you are making galettes, you can divide the dough into 2 equal pieces, about 8 ounces (250 grams) each.
- Place it on two separate pieces of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Store in the fridge for at least 24 hours before using.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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