Easy Sourdough Discard Pie Crust

Turn your sourdough discard into delicious and flaky pie crust with this step-by-step guide. This sourdough discard pie crust recipe is perfect for using up excess starter, and adding a little something extra to your holiday pies.

Everybody loves pie. In our family, we usually opt for birthday pie rather than cake. Throughout the years, we’ve gone through several pie crust iterations to accommodate our family’s food allergies. The coconut pie crust is probably the most popular for summer (cold) pies. For a grain-free, but still reasonably traditional recipe, we use the coconut flour pie crust – different from the above, and for the most traditional, gluten-free pie crust, and quick gluten free pie crust.

It’s crazy, but living with food allergies will lead you to a lot of recipe types.

Most recently, though, we’ve been making sourdough for those who don’t have food allergies and just using the other recipes for the individual who needs them.

And so, with the holidays here, we’ve been making sourdough discard pie crust.

As with all my sourdough “discard” recipes, I recommend using a fed, active starter rather than a cold, dormant starter. This gives the bacteria a head start, so it can start fermenting the dough you make quickly. And whether you let your pie crust rest five minutes or two hours before baking, you get at least a little fermentation.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that the whole reason we use sourdough? Because the fermented grains are what we’re after.

It doesn’t hurt that this pie dough is tender, flaky, and has the most delicious flavor you could ask for. It’s great for savory pies as well as sweet pies.

Ingredients for sourdough discard pie crust

This recipe follows the traditional ingredient list and method, with the simple addition of sourdough starter.

• Flour
• Salt
• Salt
• Butter
• Sourdough Starter
• Milk

Some recipes add vinegar, but I have found it to be unnecessary.

What kind of flour should you use? I use unbleached all-purpose flour.

Why not use cold water instead of milk? You could, but the milk helps add some richness to the dough.

Sourdough pie crust tips and tricks

If you’ve ever made pie crust from scratch, you may know most or all of these tips, but I will lay them out anyway because it never hurts to repeat.

Make sure your butter is cold 

Flakiness in pie crust comes from flat bits of butter layered into the dough turning to steam as it heats and escaping, leaving nothing there, but layers of the dough. In order to get those flat layers, the butter needs to be cold so it doesn’t melt into the dough as you work it.

Grate your butter with a cheese grater

This is a cheat cold to flat bits of butter. I have used a pastry blender or pastry cutter, forks, knives, and my food processor, and grating the butter is by far the best way to cut it into the flour. The same trick works perfectly for homemade sourdough biscuits as well. For this recipe, you won’t need to cut your butter into cubes. In fact, cubed butter would be a hindrance since it’s going to be easier to hold one end and just grate the whole stick.

Let your dough be a little sloppy

As you add flour, you may wonder if you’re adding enough to make a good, rollable dough. But I’d encourage you to err on the side of not enough, rather than too much. Just be sure to liberally flour your work surface and rolling pin as you roll out the dough. Your dough will absorb some of that flour as you roll it.

Flip the dough over often as you roll it

Pushing some of the flour into any part of the surface that your dough started to stick to as you lifted it to flip.

The sourdough pie crust will store well in the fridge, so you can make it ahead of time, wrap it up well in plastic wrap, and refrigerate in an airtight container until it’s needed. This can be really helpful when you’ve got a lot of baking to do! Let warm up on the countertop, still in the container, or 1-2 hours before you need to roll it out. This dough can also be kept in the freezer for up to two months.

Some pies this crust is good for:

• Sweet potato pie
• Apple butter pie
• Shoofly pie
• Dutch apple pie
• Pumpkin pie (you can find a recipe for freezable pumpkin pie filling here)

These are all pies that are baked with the pie crust. For summer pies, where you need to pre-bake the crust, I recommend using pie weights to keep it from bubbling up. I’ve also used ramekins or jelly jars to hold the crust down. This isn’t a quirk of sourdough crust. I find it to be a good idea with all pie crust.

Some really good cold pies for this are:

• Coconut cream pie
• Chocolate Cream pie
• Pumpkin cream pie
• And strawberry pie made with our homemade strawberry pie filling
• I often use our home-canned sweet potatoes for making sweet potato pie (a southern staple!) and our home-canned butternut squash or pumpkin for pumpkin pies. The main difference between using these and fresh sweet potatoes or store-bought canned pumpkin is that you will drain the canned goods very well before mashing and adding them to your pie.

This crust is also suitable for savory pies like chicken pot pie.

Now, back to the pie crust recipe.

How to make sourdough discard pie crust

1. Combine flour and salt
2. Grate in cold butter using a cheese grater. Stir flour over the butter several times during the process to keep the butter flakes from sticking together and becoming one lump again
   
3. Stir well to distribute butter, and break up some of the longer flakes
4. Add sourdough starter and milk
5. Stir just until a ball forms
   
6. Turn sourdough pie crust dough onto a floured work surface and work into a ball. You can also use parchment paper for easy cleanup.
   
7. Roll out to about 2 inches wider than a 9-inch pie plate and about 1/8 inch thick. As you can see in the pictures, I’m great at doing a nice circular rollout, but it works.
8. Be sure to flip the dough over a few times as you roll to ensure it’s not sticking to the table.
   
9. Fold dough in half, and place over half of the pie place, then unfold and press into the plate.
   
10. Cut off excess dough and crimp edges
11. Poke with fork holds to help keep it from bubbling up as it bakes
12. Let dough rest and ferment as long as desired – 0 minutes up to 2 hours
13. Bake at 350º for 20 minutes, or fill and bake as your filling recipe directs

If you’re not ready to bake your crust immediately, chill it in the refrigerator until ready. I find that it’s best to let it come back closer to room temperature before rolling it out, but you don’t want it too warm where the butter will melt. 

What to do with leftovers

This is a recipe for a single-crust pie. If you want a double crust, you will need to double the recipe. However, there is always some excess to cut off. So what do you do with it?

Make a lattice. There is usually enough left for making a lattice, which is nice on an old fashioned apple pie.

Make “Pie crackers”. Roll out the leftovers, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to do this. Bake alongside your pie or at 400º for 15 minutes, until done. These are always nice little extra treats.

More Sourdough Recipes for You

• Sourdough Pizza Crust recipe
• Sourdough Chocolate chip cookies
• How to make sourdough waffles
• Sourdough hamburger buns
• Sourdough discard crackers

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