All-Butter Flaky Sourdough Discard Pie Crust
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Sourdough discard pie crust recipe comes together quickly in a food processor but can also be made without one. The pie crust is sturdy yet flaky and a perfect way to use up sourdough discard when you don’t want a sour-tasting end product. You can also use flour and milk/cream in place of the sourdough discard. Use this versatile pie crust in sweet and savory recipes!
Ingredients
- Flour: All-purpose or cake flour (medium or low-gluten) works best. Avoid using bread flour, which has a higher gluten content and can make the pie dough tough.
- Sugar: Technically optional, but it helps balance the tanginess of the sourdough. The amount called for in the recipe won’t make the dough taste sweet. If you want a sweeter pie crust, you can increase the sugar to 1 tbsp.
- Salt: Also technically optional, but salt enhances the buttery flavor and helps balance the sourdough. If you are using salted butter, you can omit or decrease the salt based on your tastes.
- Baking soda: Baking soda neutralizes the acidity of the sourdough.
- Butter: Keep the butter cold at all times to prevent it from melting into the dough. Steam from little chunks of butter melting creates the flaky layers when you bake the pie crust.
- Sourdough discard: Binds the pie dough together. Avoid overworking the dough after adding the discard because it has water, and can initiate gluten formation. If not using sourdough discard, use 50g flour and 50g milk or cream.
- Water/milk: If you flour is particularly absorbent, you may need 1-2 tbsp of liquid to bring it together. Add liquid sparingly, otherwise the dough will be too wet to work with.
More Sourdough Discard Recipes
Sourdough Discard Pie Crust
Difficulty: EasyServings
1
23cm/9in pie crustPrep time
15
minutesCooking time
30
minutesIngredients
120g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
5g (1 tsp) sugar, or more to taste
3g (¾ tsp) salt (decrease if using salted butter)
¼ tsp baking soda
113g (8 tbsp; 1 stick) cold cubed butter
100g (scant ½ cup) sourdough discard, cold (or 50g flour + 50g milk/cream)
1-2 tbsp water/milk, as needed
Directions
- In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cold butter together until the butter is broken into small pebbly chunks. Alternatively, use a pastry cutter or your fingers to rub the butter into the flour. Chill the dough for 10 minutes after this step if making it by hand to re-solidify the butter.
- Add the cold sourdough discard into the food processor and pulse briefly or stir with a spatula, until the discard is broken up. The dough should look shaggy and there might be dry bits of flour still.
- Pour a splash of milk/water onto the dry bits of flour and pulse/stir again to incorporate.
- Once the flour is mostly hydrated, turn it out onto a clean surface and gently press until it forms a disc. Avoid kneading, which will develop gluten and toughen the dough. If needed, add a few more splashes of milk on the dry spots.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes, or until ready to use.
- Blind-baking
- After preparing your pie crust according to the recipe, prick the bottom with a fork. Weigh it down with pie weights, raw peanuts, or something else heavy-ish on parchment paper to keep the bottom from puffing up. Bake at 180°C/350°F for 20 minutes, or until the edges start to brown.
- Remove the parchment and weights, and bake for another 10 minutes to firm up the bottom. If the edges brown too fast, form a ring of tinfoil around the rim of the pie and continue baking.
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