Let’s just say I set off a firestorm of interest yesterday when I shared this photo of my latest attempt at making a PiePaw’s Pie Crust!
So I’ve dropped everything else on my Snowbird agenda and I’m writing as fast as my laptop will allow.
I found this recipe by accident on Thanksgiving night. Yes, after a wonderful day filled with family and lots of delicious food (including MANY pies!) I found myself curled up in bed…watching food videos! Guilty as charged.
Thank You Miss Brenda…And PiePaw!
And that’s when I stumbled onto Miss Brenda Gantt’s Southern cooking UTube channel…and her amazing recipe. And since my hubby is known as Peepaw…I was fascinated by the name of her pie crust! Turns out there is an elderly man in Miss Brenda’s Alabama town who is known for his delicious pies. He is affectionately known as PiePaw! So this is PiePaw’s recipe.
PiePaw says Dump…And Stir
And this is the truly amazing part of PiePaw’s recipe. Everything is dumped directly into the pie pan and mixed right there! No rolling pin required!
First, combine the flour and the 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt…
Next, add the 2 tablespoons of sugar…
Then add 1/2 cup of cooking oil!
Finally add 3 1/2 tablespoons of whole milk…
Mix everything together, right in the pie pan. If the dough seems too soft, add a little more flour, and if the dough is too dry add a little more milk.
Press the dough out into the bottom of the pie pan and flatten with your fingers. Then use a flat-bottomed glass or small dish to smooth and thin the bottom and to press the dough up against the sides of the pan.
Push plenty of dough up the sides to allow enough mixture to create a nice, decorative edge above the rim.
Freezer First -Then Bake
Next, I DID stick the pie pan into the freezer for about 15 minutes before I baked the crust. The recipe says bake at 375 degrees for ABOUT 20 minutes…but mine took almost 25 minutes before I was happy with the color. You do you!!
I have only made one crust pies so far with this method, but I’m quite sure it will work just as well when making a top crust. I’ll keep you posted when I try this. I’ll simply mix the ingredients in a bowl and roll out between sheets of waxed paper before plopping on top of the pie filling.
So…drum roll please. Here is PiePaw’s recipe! And THANK YOU Miss Brenda Gantt for sharing this amazing recipe with all of us! (And please thank PiePaw too!)
PiePaw's Pie Crust (Credit Brenda Gantt)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups Flour
- 1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
- 2 Tbsps. Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Cooking Oil (I use Canola or Vegetable Oil)
- 3 1/2 Tbsps. Whole Milk
Instructions
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Select a 9 inch pie pan.
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Add flour, salt, and sugar and mix well.
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Stir in cooking oil and milk and mix well.
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If mixture is too wet add flour. If it's too dry add milk.
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Pat mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan. Use a glass or small dish to help to flatten the dough. Press the glass against the sides of the pie pan and create your decorative edge.
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I placed the pie pan into the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 375 degrees while the crust is in the freezer.
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Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until desired color is reached.
Patty. this has been my favorite recipe for years. It is the only crust I can make. My recipe is only 2 T of milk. I use my little rolling pin that I purchased at Yotty’s. I think it is called a pizza rolling pin. It is 2 inches on one end and 4 inches on the other end. It works great for smoothing the dough.
Jane
Thanks for your comments Jane! And I’m sorry it has taken me this long to reply! 🙁 Happy Baking!!
XOXO
Meemaw
That sounds like an interesting recipe to try and is quite different from my usual one. I might have to try this!
I hope you liked it Ferne!
XOXO
Meemaw
Can’t wait to try!! Thank you for sharing PiePaw’s crust!!
Thanks Elizabeth! I hope you like it as much as I did! 🙂
XOXO
Meemaw
Love this pie crust!
Thanks Sharon! So do I! So easy…and so flaky too!!
XOXO
Meemaw
What size pie pan should be used.
Great question Judy! I used a 9 inch pie pan. Good luck and let me know how it goes for you!!
XOXO
Meemaw
Plain flour ? How do you know whether you bake it first or after you put ingredients in.
Great questions! Yes…plain flour. And I start with only 3 tablespoons of milk and add more if needed. Whether to bake first or not depends totally on what type of pie you are making! ENJOY!!
XOXO
Meemaw
If your pipe ingredients are.goinf to be super wet.. like a custard, then pre-bake your pie crust for 10 mins. Let cool completely.
I have found that I usually only need to add a little more than two tablespoons of milk to this recipe insted of Brenda’s 3 1/2 Tablespoons. I think a lot depends on the brand of flour that is used. I just made a sour cream raisin pie last week and I did not prebake the crust before I added the filling. I baked it as usual and it came out great! Don’t be afraid to play around with the amount of liquid added to the pie crust.
Happy Baking!
XOXO
Meemaw
I made a coconut cream pie yesterday & used this pie crust recipe for the first time. It looked good when I put in in the pie plate. Once cooked, ( I did pre bake it) it was very crumbly. What did I do wrong? I went right by the recipe.
Thanks for your comment Sylvia, and I’m sorry it didn’t turn out as you had hoped! It sounds like you may have needed to add a little more milk to the dough when mixing it up. Sometimes it takes more liquid and sometimes less. I think the flour can contain more or less moisture so the ratio of wet to dry ingredients can vary. I hope it turned out tasty enough that you’ll try again!
XOXO
Meemaw
Easiest and best pie crust! I watched Mrs Brenda live making it and it’s the only pie crust that doesn’t fail me.
Thanks Anne! It is so simple! I just wish Miss Brenda mixed her ingredients just a little bit faster!!! I am apparently a very impatient person! LOL!! But that crust was worth the wait for sure!
XOXO
Meemaw
I’ve been using this recipe now for some time. It’s my go to for all of my tart cases and pies. Savoury and sweet. It’s so easy and a triumph with all my shortcrust pastry recipes.
It really is an easy pie crust! Happy Baking Pat!!
XOXO
Meemaw
Is it necessary to use kosher salt?
Great question Diane. I would think not. Any salt should work fine.
Happy Baking!
XOXO
Meemaw
Does it work well for pies that are baked with filling like pumpkin and pecan?
Great question Kathy. I haven’t tried it with that type yet, but I think it should work. If you try before I do…please share your results! Happy Baking!
XOXO
Meemaw
It makes excellent pumpkin pies! My boys (28 & 35) said it’s better than their grandma’s crust!
Thanks for telling me Tammy! (But please don’t tell Grandma!!) LOL!!! 🙂
XOXO
Meemaw
I can’t stand it!! When I’m craving something sweet, I whip up this crust and fill it, its so easy and fast and YUMMY! Last week..couldn’t wait til Thanksgiving….made a pumpkin pie, that my husband and I fought over. Now I’m whipping up another as I’m testing this tweak I made with my pumpkin pie recipe and I want to see how it tastes (so she says LOL). Thanksgiving is tomorrow!! Hahahaha but I’ll have pie on PiePaw’s crust!! Tomorrow, I have to use my usual pie crust recipe or there will be an uprising 😆
LOL!!! Good Luck and Happy Eating!!
XOXO
Meemaw
I find it to much oil for the recipe,I don’t know why!!
I’m not sure Mary. May I ask what kind of oil you used? Maybe that could be the issue…
XOXO
Meemaw
Just tried this recipe. Watched Brenda ganntt when she was at mark Lowery’s.
In the oven and put pumpkin filling in. So far so good. Thanks.
I hope it turned out great Sandi!
XOXO
Meemaw
Made this after watching Ms Brenda make it! Very delicious! Quick question —
if I want to make this crust & put apples for apple pies we just peel & cut our apples & keep them soaking in lemon juice & water until we fill the crusts! Then we put pats of butter on top of apples then we sprinkle a little bit of sugar over all! ( like we always do with an already frozen pie crust) do u think this would work with the pie paw crust not
Already frozen? When we take out of freezer we just mix some brown & white sugar a small amount of flour & sprinkle over the frozen pie! Bake at 350 degrees until browned & bubbly! My husband’s mom taught me how to do this! They are very delicious depending on the type of apples that u use! Honey crisp or crimson are so good!
This was the easiest, tastiest, best pie crust recipe I’ve ever had and made and you can find her on Facebook, Brenda Gantt, making this pie recipe with this lady they gave her the pie recipe. We did everything they said to do and this lady says to poke some holes in it and we did that. But I will say my kids are gluten and dairy free and we just switched everything up and it was just delicious and just fine because typically the gluten and dairy free crust are dinky, dry, tasteless just be sure to stir it real good so you get a little taste of salt and sugar everywhere in the pie crust.
Thanks for your reply Linda. And I’m so glad it turned out so well for you too!!
XOXO
Meemaw
If using a top crust do you bake all at the same time? Top crust and bottom crust? Or do you bake the bottom crust add filling and top crust then bake again and for how long? Sorry! So new at baking pies!
I’m so sorry for my tardy reply, but I haven’t used this recipe except for one crust pies. Baking directions usually will tell you how and when to bake specific types of pies. But I will eventually make a pie requiring a top crust. And in that case I will simply roll out the crust between two sheets of waxed paper and then place it on top of the pie filling. It should work just fine that way. Good luck, and Happy Baking!
XOXO
Meemaw
I’m making a sweet potato pie. The filling bakes for 35 minutes. Do I pre bake the crust then add the filling and bake for 30 more minutes with a ring around the pue crust edges for protection? Thank you for this recipe !!!
Hi Kathryn! You’ve probably already figured out the answer to your question…but if not, just pour your filling into your UNBAKED crust and bake as directed. The baking time can vary, and an easy way to know if its baked is to nsert a knife into the middle of the filling, and if the knife comes out clean the pie is done. 🙂
Happy Baking!
XOXO
Meemaw
Will this pie crust recipe work with a deep pie plate?
Sounds good Donna. I’ve bever had that version!
XOXO
Meemaw
Very simple and easy recipe. Took me 19 minutes start to finish without prepping ingredients before hand. Highly recommend. First time I’ve even attempted making a pie crust.
Very simple and easy recipe. Took me 10 minutes start to finish without prepping ingredients before hand. Highly recommend. First time I’ve even attempted making a pie crust.
Thanks for your comment Dorothy and I’m glad you liked the simple recipe too! (Sorry I took me so long to reply!)
XOXO
Meemaw