Grocery pie crust is mostly the rolled-up refrigerated kind built on hydrogenated shortening, or a pre-formed graham shell. A real crust is butter (or lard) cut into flour and kept cold so it bakes into flakes instead of crumbling. These independent bakers sell the honest version — frozen all-butter rounds, a scratch mix, take-and-bake dough — so you skip the shortening.
Published July 2026 · Updated 7 Jul 2026
An Atlanta baker selling a frozen unbaked all-butter crust made from four things: King Arthur flour, Plugrà European-style butter, salt, and water. No shortening, no preservatives; it keeps three months in the freezer, and there's a gluten-free version made the same way. Ships frozen.
Why it isn't on AmazonA frozen ready-to-roll all-butter crust from a single baker is almost impossible to find — the freezer aisle is shortening-based rounds and graham shells.
See it at Pies by Julie →The Ann Arbor bakehouse behind Zingerman's sells its own frozen pie crusts, two to a pack, through the long-running Zingerman's Mail Order. An independent food community that's shipped nationwide for decades. Roll and fill straight from the freezer.
Why it isn't on AmazonYou're getting a real bakery's crust shipped to your door instead of a supermarket house brand — Zingerman's built its name on not cutting those corners.
See it at Zingerman's Bakehouse →Amanda Wilbanks's Georgia pie company sells its signature all-butter crust as a dry mix — you add butter and water — for about $12, enough for one double or two single crusts, with a gluten-free version too. Not frozen dough, but a scratch shortcut straight from a real pie shop. Ships nationwide.
Why it isn't on AmazonIt's the pie-shop recipe without the frozen-shipping cost; a boxed grocery mix won't be built around real butter.
See it at Southern Baked Pie Company →A Cincinnati baker at historic Findlay Market selling frozen all-butter pie dough — $9 ready-to-roll or $12 pre-rolled in a pan. Straight talk: it's pickup or Cincinnati-metro delivery only, no nationwide shipping, so this one's for locals.
Why it isn't on AmazonIf you're in Cincinnati, it's fresh butter dough from a market stall instead of a national freezer brand — worth knowing even though it doesn't travel far.
See it at Makers Bakers →This seat's open on purpose — we won't pad the list to hit a number. If you ship real pie crust & dough direct, it's earned, not sold.
Add your brand →Butter tastes best and browns beautifully, but it softens fast, so the dough has to stay cold. Shortening is easy to work and makes a tender crust but tastes of nothing. Lard makes the flakiest, most old-fashioned crust and is great for savory pies. Many bakers split butter-and-lard for both flavor and flake; the grocery tube is usually all hydrogenated shortening.
Keep it frozen or well-chilled going in — a warm crust slumps. Line it with parchment, fill with pie weights or dried beans, and bake at around 375–400°F until the edges set, then pull the weights and bake a few minutes more to dry the base. Docking (poking the bottom with a fork) helps it not bubble up.
The flakes come from small, solid pieces of butter that stay separate in the dough until the oven's heat flashes their water to steam and pushes the layers apart. If the butter warms and blends into the flour, you get a dense, greasy crust instead. That's why bakers chill the dough, the bowl, even the water — and why frozen dough bakes up flaky.
Yes — a plain all-butter crust (no added sugar) is the same dough behind quiche, pot pie, and hand pies. Only crusts made specifically sweet, or graham shells, are locked to dessert. The frozen unbaked rounds here are neutral, so one crust covers a quiche Lorraine or a chicken pot pie just as well as an apple pie.
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