Over the weekend I made a couple of different pies and of
course I made the pie crusts for them from scratch. I’ve used several different
recipes for crusts but found this one to be the best for support heavy
fillings. It’s a bit denser than you might expect but it is easy to roll out
and doesn’t tend to break apart so it’s a good recipe for the beginner pie
maker.
Pie Crust
3 cups flour
1 t. salt
8 ounces butter flavored Crisco (half stick)
1 egg
1 T. sugar
1 t. vodka
Cold water
Combine flour and salt. Add shortening and cut into flour mixture
with a pastry blender or two knives, uncles mixture resembles coarse meal. The
smaller the particles of shortening, the more tender your crust.
Combine egg, sugar, vinegar and enough cold water to make
one cup of liquid. Pour over flour mixture. Mix with a fork just until
combined. You may have to add more water to get the mixture to hold together;
it will still be somewhat crumbly, however.
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Turn a pie
plate upside down over dough and trim edges to one inch larger than the rim of
the pie plate. Fold dough in half and gently ease it into the pie plate. Use
your fingers to crimp the edges.
Tip: If your recipe
calls for blind baking, place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the
crust. Add baking weights or dried beans and bake at 425 degrees for about 10 –
15 minutes. The parchment paper makes it easy to remove the weights when you
take the crust out of the oven.
Makes enough for two 9” pie crusts.
