The Big Mistake That's Ruining Your Homemade Pie Crust

Baking is a science, and there are plenty of ways that a dough from scratch can go sideways. Megan Brophy is the Executive Pastry Chef at Pastis Miami, a critically acclaimed French restaurant, and she knows a thing or two when it comes to making a perfect pie dough from scratch. Anxiety may drive you to triple-check that all dough ingredients are mixed. However, Chef Brophy warned in an interview with Daily Meal, "Overmixing is the biggest mistake that is made when making pie dough."

Chef Brophy suggests mixing the dough by hand — or even carefully using a food processor — to give "much more control over how much the dough is mixed." In either case, you must still be sure not to overmix it. Overmixing your dough will agitate too much of the gluten and result in a tough, chewy crust. Although there are many fixes for common pie crust errors, there is no fix for an overworked dough except starting again fresh.

Chef Megan Brophy advises that cooks watch for another common pie crust error that could be ruining them: Creating a crust using warm ingredients. "Using cold ingredients is imperative to ensure the fat does not completely break down, which will result in a tough pie crust," she explains.

In its softened or melted state, butter will cause sticky dough that easily tears, resulting in a hard crust. Keeping all ingredients cool is one of the essential tips for making a pie crust from scratch. Even though it's shelf-stable, consider refrigerating your flour for a few minutes first. Other tips for keeping the temperature low include using ice water and refrigerating your mixing bowl and rolling pin. Whatever you do, just don't make the dough too cold, or it will come out overly crumbly.