5 Types of Pie Crust

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Flaky pastry crust

Flaky pastry crusts are the most popular pie crusts in America. Conjure an image of a pumpkin pie, a lattice-topped apple pie or even one of those thick slab pies, and it’ll most certainly be wrapped in a flaky pie crust. These crusts have a lot of structure and can hold almost any filling, plus they have a ton of flavor and an incredibly flaky texture. Why? Pea-sized pieces of fat are dotted throughout the dough. When they bake in the oven, they melt and steam, creating those sought-after flaky layers.

Flaky pie crusts are made in a 3-2-1 ratio: 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part liquid. “Fat” can mean butter, shortening or lard, and each one lends its own flavor and texture to the flaky pie crust. If you’re a baker, you’ve probably made this one many times in your own home with a classic butter pie crust, shortening pie crust or lard pie crust recipe. If you’re not, you may have at least bought a premade pie crust at the store.

Use this type of pie crust for fruit pies, baked cream pies like pumpkin pie or pecan pie, all sorts of galettes, slab pies and hand pies. It can even be used for savory pies like pot pies and fish pies—as long as the pie crust doesn’t contain sugar. I would not use this type of crust for pies with no-bake fillings, as the textures do not contrast nicely.

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Shortcrust pastry

Shortcrust pastry is a French-style dough that’s used for pies, tarts and quiches. There are three types of shortcrust pastry: pâte brisée, pâte sucrée and pâte sablée, which are differentiated from one another based on their ingredients. Their common denominator is that they use more fat than flour, making their texture crumbly and biscuity in comparison to the strong, sturdy texture of flaky pastry.

Any of the three styles of shortcrust pastry can be used for sweet tart recipes like a fruit tart, for custard fillings like pumpkin pie or chocolate tart, or for cold pies with a no-bake filling like lemon meringue pie or French silk pie. This is also the ideal pie crust for savory tarts and quiche recipes, although the shortcrust pastry must be pâte brisée, which does not contain sugar.

This pie crust is one of the easiest to manipulate, so try it out when making decorative pie crusts—like the impressive lattice pie crust.

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Hot water pastry crust

Most types of pie dough require every ingredient to be cold, cold, cold. For hot water pastry crust, the opposite is true. In this pie crust favorite—which is a favorite in the U.K.—boiling water mixes with the fat and flour, creating a completely homogenous dough. This technique gelatinizes the starches, which absorb more liquid and, in turn, makes a smoother dough that’s very easy to work with (albeit a bit hot). The result? A sturdy pie crust that holds up to juicy, meaty fillings and can stand on its own when taken out of its special mold. Plus, it’s wonderfully crispy on the outside.

Hot water pastry crust is usually made with lard or beef drippings as the fat, but some recipes use some (or all) butter or shortening. Save hot water pastry crust for pork pies, Finnish meat pies, steak and kidney pies, fish pies, pasties, mincemeat pies or any self-saucing savory pies with bold flavors.

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Crumb crust

Crumb crusts take a different approach than typical pie crusts. Homemade dough is cast aside in favor of a mixture of cookie crumbs and melted butter, which is formed into a pie crust. One of my favorite aspects of this crust is that you can use almost any cookie, which creates the opportunity to experiment with so many different flavors for all sorts of pie fillings.

Blitz graham crackers for a graham cracker crust, Oreos for an Oreo pie crust, heavily-spiced gingersnaps for a pumpkin cheesecake pie, chocolate or vanilla wafers for a fudgy turtle pie or raspberry cream pie, or pecan shortbread cookies for a cream cheese pumpkin pie.

But you don’t have to stop at cookies! There are all sorts of other crumb crust ingredients you can try, like nuts, shredded coconut, saltines or cereal. Crumb crusts are best for custard fillings, premade fillings or no-bake fillings. Avoid pairing a crumb crust with fruit pie fillings.

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Unique crusts

Thanks to creative bakers, out-of-the-box pie crusts have emerged from every corner of the internet. Don’t be afraid to use unexpected ingredients to make a pie crust, like broken ice cream cones for a confetti pie, crushed pretzels for a peanut butter pretzel pie, or even shredded potatoes for a potato crust quiche.

Pie-baking queen Erin Jean McDowell shared her grain pie crust recipe, which uses leftover grains (rice, farro, barley) to make a flavorful and crispy crust for all sorts of savory pies. She also shared her meringue pie crust, reversing the assembling order for lemon meringue pie. And the Gold Lining Girl published a genius chocolate chip cookie pie crust recipe for all kinds of creamy pie fillings. There’s lots of room for creativity when it comes to pie crusts!