Secret to a Perfect Pie Crust

This post was sponsored by SC Johnson, all opinions are my own. #ZiplocHolidayUAI

The holiday season is here, and you know what that means, lots of baking! (Or at least a lot of eating!) If I had to choose a favorite holiday food group, it would definitely be pie. (Pie is a food group, right?) Warm apple pie straight from the oven, fluffy meringue and layers of chocolate, or fruit, or whatever yummy fillings you can add to a perfectly flaky pie crust!

When I first attempted a homemade pie crust a few years ago, I almost swore off making one ever again. It wasn’t the pie dough recipe giving me issues, or even the baking of the pie itself. It was dealing with the pie crust dough! No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get my dough evenly rolled, it stuck to the kitchen counter, and it would tear or fall apart when I attempted to move it to the pie dish. Let’s just say the result was not pretty.

When my husband taught me this trick for getting your pie crust perfectly in place I was shocked at how easy it was and I will never, ever attempt it any other way! It turns out, all you really need to get your perfect pie crust is a Ziploc® Brand Gallon Storage Bag! Who knew? I always make sure to grab a box (or two) at Walmart this time of year, especially since I’m always there picking up my other holiday supplies! I know I’ll use Ziploc® Brand products for everything from food storage to holiday decor organization, and once you see how these gallon storage bags can transform your sticky pie crust dough mess, you’ll run to grab a box too!

Secret to a Perfect Pie Crust

Supplies needed:

Pie crust dough
Ziploc® Brand Gallon Storage Bag or Ziploc® Brand Gallon Freezer Bag
2 pie pans or dishes of similar size – chilled
rolling pin
sharp paring knife or kitchen shears
flour

I’ve got 11 steps total between you and a perfectly (and easily!) placed pie crust. Once you see the steps and go through it once I promise this just takes a few minutes to complete, and you’ll never go back!

1. Once you’ve made your pie dough recipe of choice, separate your dough into equal size balls. (The recipe I use yields three pie crusts.)

2. Take each dough ball and place it into a Ziploc® Brand Gallon Storage Bag. (Use a Ziploc® Brand Gallon Freezer Bag if you don’t plan to use them all soon!)

3. Use a rolling pin to slightly flatten the dough into a disc.

4. If your recipe makes multiple pie crusts, you can now freeze those for later in the baking season! I’m using Ziploc® Brand Gallon Storage bags because I’ll be making all my pies now!) Take the pie crust dough you’ll be using today, and freeze it for about 20 minutes.

5. After 20 minutes, take your dough, still in the Ziploc® Brand Gallon Bag, and using a sharp knife (or kitchen shears), make a cut down each side removing the edges. My cuts were about 1/4 of an inch. The cuts needs to go from the top of the bag all the way to the bottom. (Do not cut across the bottom of the bag.)

6. Pull the bag open and sprinkle some flour on your disc of dough. Flip it over and do the same for the other side. Pull the bag back over the disc (it doesn’t have to close at the top).

7. Using a rolling pin, start rolling out your dough as evenly as possibly. Fill the bag from top to bottom and just outside the edges of the bag.

8. Pull open the bag on one side (you can add more flour to each side if you’d like) and set one of your chilled pie pans or dishes directly on top of the dough, bottom down.

9. Flip the bag and pie pan over so the crust is now on top of the bottom of the pan.

10. Take your other pie dish (the one you’ll be baking with today) and place it open side down onto the dough, sandwiching your dough between the pie dishes.

11. Flip it back over and remove the top dish. You’re now ready to trim up the edges of the crust and fill with whatever yummy filling you like!

How easy was that?! No scraping dough off your kitchen counter or cutting board. No dough that’s falling apart mid move to the pan. It’s so simple and all it took was a Ziploc® Brand bag!