Easy Hot Water Pie Crust

Easy Hot Water Pie Crust

The Spruce / Cara Cormack

Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 15 mins
Total: 30 mins
Servings: 6 servings
Yield: 1 pie crust

This is a simple and tasty hot water pie crust. In traditional pie crust recipes, you have to keep the ingredients cold. This recipe gives you another option and results in one of the most tender pie crust you'll ever taste.

Ingredients

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Easy Hot Water Pie Crust ingredients

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  2. Place shortening in a large bowl.

    Place shortening in large bowl

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  3. Pour hot water and milk over the shortening.

    Pour hot water and milk over the shortening

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  4. With a dinner fork, break up the shortening. Tilt the bowl, and beat the mixture quickly with the fork, until the mixture looks like whipped cream. This will take about 5 minutes. Some water will splash out of the bowl as you beat the mixture together, but that is OK.

    With a dinner fork, break up the shortening

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  5. Once well combined, pour the flour and salt over shortening mixture, and beat well with the fork, forming a dough that cleans any remaining scraps from the bowl.

    dough ball in a bowl

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  6. Divide the pie crust dough into 2 parts, and roll out between 2 sheets of waxed paper.

    pie crust rolled out between sheets of parchment paper

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  7. Fit the dough into a pie shell, and then follow the steps that your specific pie requires. (This recipe makes enough pastry for 2 crusts in 8-inch or 9-inch pie plates.)

    pie crust dough in a pie tin

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  8. To bake a single pie crust to be filled with an unbaked filling (called blind baking), line the pie crust with foil and pie weights (or dried beans). Another option is to prick it with a fork. (This is called docking.)

    poke holes in the pie crust with a fork, place pie weights on top

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  9. To blind bake the crust: bake it in a preheated 375 F oven for 12 minutes. Remove the foil and weights, and bake for 7 to 8 minutes longer until the crust is light golden brown in spots.

    Easy Hot Water Pie Crust, blind baked

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  10. For pricked pie crust: bake for 15 to 20 minutes, pricking again halfway through baking time if the crust starts to puff up. Cool completely, and fill with desired fillings.

    Easy Hot Water Pie Crust, pricked pie crust

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

Tips

  • While easy, this recipe requires a lot of beating. In the first step, the hot water and milk combine with the shortening. It may seem like the ingredients will never combine, but keep going because they will. It takes about 5 minutes. The shortening will become very fluffy and light after the hot water is incorporated. Then you add the flour and salt, and mix until a dough forms. Keep mixing the dough until it's smooth.
  • When you're making this recipe, think about doubling it. Take the extra dough and form it into two or three round balls, wrap, label, and freeze. Then, the next time you want to make a pie, just pull a frozen crust from the freezer, let it sit on the countertop for about 20 minutes to thaw, roll it out, and bake it.
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
441 Calories
30g Fat
36g Carbs
5g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories 441
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 30g 39%
Saturated Fat 12g 61%
Cholesterol 17mg 6%
Sodium 179mg 8%
Total Carbohydrate 36g 13%
Dietary Fiber 1g 5%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 5g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 10mg 1%
Iron 2mg 12%
Potassium 54mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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