This tender flaky lard pie crust recipe is straight from my great grandma’s recipe box. It practically melts in your mouth.
If the perfect pie crust is on your baking bucket list, you have to give this recipe a try. After a long search, we finally have my great grandma’s recipe for the pie crust she was so famous for.
Luckily we are all the beneficiaries of her decades of experience. Please give it a try for yourself.
Is there a certain food that instantly makes you think of your grandmother? For my mom, that food is pie.
Her dad’s mother lived in rural Indiana. So visiting was always such a treat for her and her Chicago suburbanite siblings.
My mom has tried so many pie crusts over the years trying to find one that rivals hers. She has stumbled upon some good ones like her flaky pie crust and even a chocolate pie crust.
Even though they were absolutely great, they just weren’t grandma’s pie crust. Then finally she got the recipe from her cousin.
We finally had it! So you think there would be instant pie, right?
Not quite.
Good Lard Makes All of the Difference
The key to a great pie crust is using good ingredients. There are so few things in there, the flavor of each one makes a big difference.
My mom remembers going with her grandma to the butcher to get the lard for her crust. She said “if you don’t have the right lard, it’s not worth making a pie.”
Leaf lard is the most prized lard around. It is super white and sourced from around the kidneys and loins of the pig.
So we waited until we had the good stuff. MiMi rendered leaf lard from pigs they raised on their little homestead farm.
It was finally time to make a pie. And it was worth the wait.
Of course you don’t have to render your own. Leaf lard is available, you may just need to put in a little effort to find it.
Good has a clean flavor and makes the flakiest pastry. It is worth going out of your way to find the good stuff.
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Lard, Really?
Yes! Lard actually has a lot of advantages over other fats you could use in your pastry.
Lard blends easily, chills nicely and has such a silky feel in your hands as you work with the dough. It creates such perfect flakes in the crust.
It is easier to work with cold than butter and doesn’t melt as quickly. Plus it has less saturated fat and no trans fats unlike shortening.
Tips for a Flaky Crust
Getting a flaky crust depends on more than just using lard. Of course there are more tricks you can have in your arsenal.
The first is the temperature of your ingredients. Using cold lard and water will help keep the fat from melting before you are ready.
Chilling the dough before you roll it and again before you bake it also helps. I like to pat it into disks before I chill it.
That makes it chill more evenly and you have a head start on rolling it out vs. chilling it as a ball. Of course working it as little as possible will help as well.
No Soggy Bottoms
The notes on my great grandma’s recipe say to preheat a cookie sheet with the oven. Put the pie pan on the hot sheet pan.
The pan will not only catch any drips, but will also apply even heat across the bottom of the pie. It will help prevent that dreaded soggy bottom.
It’s Pie Time!
I used this crust to make my great-grandma’s apple pie. That recipe is coming in a couple of days.
It is the gold standard of pie’s in my mom’s eyes. She drove across town in snow and subzero temperatures to have a slice. Of course now we love it too.
This pie would also make a great pot pie. Whip some up to make an extra tasty creamy chicken pot pie or ham and cheese pot pie.
I can imagine great-grandma loving a good old fashioned sour cream and raisin pie. Or whip up a fun oatmeal pie for another fun treat.
Don’t forget to save those scraps and turn them into cinnamon sugar pie crust cookies! That is a great reward for making your own crust.
What is the secret to a good pie crust?
There are two secrets that make a super tender crust:
The first is keeping it nice and cold. Start with cold water and lard and refrigerate the crust again before you bake it.
The second is to work the dough as little as possible. Working the dough too much develops the gluten and makes for a tougher crust.
Lard Pie Crust
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ cup lard leaf lard if possible
- 3 to 4 Tablespoons cold water
Instructions
Making the Dough
- Stir together 1½ cups all purpose flour and 1 pinch salt.
- Cut in ½ cup lard until you have a crumbly mixture.
- Add just enough ice cold water to make it come together into a dough.
- Pat into a flat disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill at least a half hour.
- Roll into a thin circle and fit into your pie pan.
- For the flakiest crust, put the crust lined pie plate back in the refrigerator for another 15 minutes. Or go ahead and proceed to bake according to your pie filling's instructions.
Blind Baking the Crust
- To bake the pie shell without fillings, preheat oven to 425°F.
- Prick the crust a few times with a fork, then line with parchment paper or foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 12 minutes.
- Carefully remove paper or foil and weights then ake 8 to 10 minutes more for a partially baked crust, or for a fully baked crust 10 to 12 minutes longer until golden brown.
Notes
- This is enough for a single pie crust. Double the recipe for a double crust pie.
- You can make pie crust dough ahead of time if you want. Store the disk of wrapped dough in the refrigerator for up to three days or freeze it up to three months. Defrost frozen dough in the refrigerator overnight before using.
- Using a good quality rendered lard will make for the best pie crust. If it's not by the shortening or butter, you may ask at the meat counter or at a local butcher shop.
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We made this in bulk when I was a child. 6 cups flour and a pound of lard. Added salt as well but I’m not sure how much. We kept the dry mix in a jar and measured out 1 1/2 cups and added ice cold water. Rolled it out with a bit of flour and into the pie pan. No fancy tips or tricks. I’m going back to this because the pastry made with other fats just isn’t worth it.
I love that so much! What a fabulous idea to have the mix ready to go and such a fun memory.
Great recipe, very happy to have found it, thanks. Today I’m making sausage rolls with it. I will admit to being a bit lazy and doing it in my food processor – carefully – still fabulous pastry 😊
The food processor is great for pastry as long as you know when to quit! I am glad you liked it!
Wouldn’t it be great to just get a recipe online without 15 pages of crap and pop up ads!
Thanks for your feedback! I do my best to provide the best content I can that’s free and accessible to people at any skill level. The additional information included with each of my recipes contains tips and tricks, troubleshooting guides, answers to frequently asked questions, and more! I realize not everyone may need the extra info, so I also have a jump to recipe button to make sure those needs are covered too.
As for the ads, running a website costs money. So do the ingredients to make all of these recipes. The ads help offset the time and expense of sharing the information with everyone. There are plenty of ad-free resources out there, but most cost money to access.
@Gary Soderberg, click “print recipe” and all the extra goes away ☺️
I’m going to try this today with lard I got from my friend who has pigs!!
@Gary Soderberg, Do (or did) you work for free? Didn’t think so.
Lots of bot comments here this recipe is not very good too much lard no addition of butter freeze the dough or it will melt before you can roll it out haven’t baked it yet but my guess is I’ve just wasted time and ingredients
I assure you there are no bot comments here. I am not sure what kind of lard you have, but it shouldn’t be melting at room temperature. So either your kitchen is very warm or there is something going on with the lard itself. I hope it bakes up well for you in spite of the problems.
@Ken, No Ken my GM made this receipe too and I still love it. I differentiate it from what I call the shortcake recipes which do have butter and a tiny bit of sugar. The latter are easier to make as you don’t have to worry about the how cold things are but this is a less sweet pastry but flaky and it makes the filling shine.
@Ken, in case you are wondering I am not a bot, personally I hate the taste of butter in my pie crust, I admit pie crust is a challenge but this truely was the best pie/crust I have ever eaten 🙂 PS I added a little extra lard because that makes it even more tender and flaky.
Flakiest pie crust I have ever made.
Yay!
I finally found a pie crust to rival my Aunt Minna’s recipe! Thankfully I have also discovered rendering lard myself. Yes, it does make the best pie crust! This recipe certainly produces the pie crusts I remember so fondly. Thank you for sharing this with me.
That makes me so happy! I am glad I could help.
I want to make this crust, I am making pear pie and wondering if I could freeze the hole pie and bake?
That should work. You can wrap and freeze it unbaked. It would be best if you do it in a metal pie plate. That way you can bake it from frozen, just add an extra 15-20 minutes or so to the bake time.
@Carlee, thank you for such help tips!
I’ve had your Grandma Doris’s key lime pie with the melt in your mouth crust. I would love to talk more about all the recipes.
I am going to have to see if I can get my hands on that key lime pie recipe!
Well, I haven’t baked pies for 60 years 😉 but I’m a competitive chef, and let me tell you this is such a versatile crust. Cut with more salt if you want a more savory result. Cut with a pinch of sugar if you want a sweeter result. Also, author pretty much emphasized that quality of animals lard will essentially make or break this recipe. If you’re using an old generic brand of lard, I’m sure this recipe won’t taste well. Spend the extra money on quality people!!!!
@Ryan, what would be a quality lard?
@Terri, leaf lard can be purchased from a local butcher who does pig 🐷. I live in NE Ohio and I purchase from NaKyrsie in Geneva.
I’ve baked pies for 60 years and I’m sorry to say this is the worst crust I’ve ever made. (Sorry) it was miserable to roll out cold so I had to let it warm up some, tore like crazy while trying to roll it, and after it was baked it was literally just crumbly. Never again!
I am sorry it didn’t work for you.
@Jane, I also have made pies for 85 years. I have always used pure lard. My sister lived on a farm and every time they sent animals to be slaughtered she would get severl conatainers of pure lard. She always gave me one container. From your description of how your crust was, my guess is you did not put in enough water and probably over did the “cold” part of it. I measure the lard and flor and make the crust right away. I do not put it the fridge. There is no need to do that. I have made so many pies in my life I can do it in my sleep. When every I go to a pot luck I am always asked to bring a couple of pies. I do put the dough into balls and rest it, but not in the fridge. I roll out the size I need and put in my pie pan. I continue with my filling and then put The top crust on. Then I pat the top with cream or milk and sprinkle sugar over it. Beleive me, if can get this down you will making the best pie crust ever.