Nothing beats a pie made with a homemade pie crust. The frozen pie crusts available in stores are usually of decent quality and will do in a pinch, but if you have the time, there’s just something a little bit better about making your own pie crust, isn’t there?

If you decide to make your own dough, we’ve compiled some helpful pointers here for your convenience, along with the simple, basic steps you will need to take to make your most delicious pie crust ever.

1. Choosing Your Ingredients.

The first thing you need to do is find the best pie crust recipe to suit your needs.

A basic recipe for pie crust would be:

• 1¼  cup flour
• ½ cup shortening or butter
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons ice cold water

But there are some decisions to be made about your ingredients, and things you might consider adding or changing, as they can offer your crust different qualities. Such as:

2. Butter or Shortening?

Before you continue, you have an important decision to make. Are you going to use butter or shortening in your pie crust recipes? Your choice of fat will determine the consistency of your crust, with benefits to either choice.

Butter is known for giving pie crust a richer flavor, but shortening is a favorite of flaky pie crust fans. (Butter-flavored shortening is a lovely way to achieve both goals.) If you prefer butter, be sure to keep the butter very cold and get the pie into the oven before the butter warms, or it could make your pie crust overly chewy.

3. Sweet or Savory?

If you are seeking a sweet, tender pie crust, you may want to choose a pie crust recipe that includes sugar. A recipe that calls for egg yolks, buttermilk, or cream can also give your pie crust a rich flavor as well.

If your recipe would be better served with a mildly grainy or more savory pie crust, nuts can be added to give it texture. You can even replace some of the flour with ground almonds if you’d like.

4. Choosing a Liquid.

No matter what you choose for your liquid, you want to make sure to use the minimum you can get away with, as liquids activate the gluten in the flour, which can make your dough chewy or heavy. Acidic liquids can counteract the stickiness of the gluten, making vinegar, citrus juices or yogurt good choices. Most people simply use ice cold water, but some cooks swear by ice cold vodka, claiming it makes the pie crust more pliable and less likely to tear.

5. Mixing the Ingredients.

Whether you’re using a food processor or your hands, the consistency of your pie crust mixture is important. Too much mixing can very quickly turn good ball of dough into a tough, chewy mess. The generally desired consistency to achieve with your mixture seems to be a course meal with pea-sized dots of butter running throughout.

6. Working the Dough.

The final step in making great pie crust is working the dough into a flattened ball you can roll out and settle into your pie pan. The best tip we can give you during this final step is to not overwork the dough. Use your fingertips rather than your palms and try to keep the dough as cold as possible before baking to avoid toughening.

Be sure to roll your dough on a floured surface, and don’t grease the pie plate unless the recipe specifically says to do so. Also, remember to double your recipe if you’re baking a covered pie.

Following these 6 simple tips, you can make pie dough like a pro every time. Pie is a wonderful thing, no matter what, but a perfectly flaky, golden crust can turn a good pie into an amazing one.

Pauline Greenwood is an avid blogger and contributor to JustaPinch.com. She enjoys sharing about cooking experiences and her favorite meal ideas such as chocolate cake recipes.