Pie Crust

Everyone needs a good go-to recipe for pie crust.  Sometimes the recipe calls for butter (for a flakier crust), sometimes it calls for Crisco (for a stronger crust), sometimes half and half.  This recipe is one that calls for Crisco.  It’s my great-grandmother’s, and she swore by it for all of her pies throughout the year.  It’s a strong crust, but also has good flavor, which is something that isn’t easy to come by in a pie crust recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Put ingredients in food processor.  Add:

1 cup Crisco

Blend until crumbly (size of small peas).  Add:

1/2 cup cold water (more or less depending on the humidity)

Mix in food processor.  Turn out onto plastic wrap and press into flattened round disc, chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  Can be frozen.  Makes 2 double-crust pies, without re-rolling scraps.

pie crust, ready to chill in the refrigerator

I always like to make a couple of batches of this ahead of time, roll it out, and then put the unbaked pie crusts in the freezer (wrapped in plastic wrap and put in a large 2-gallon Ziploc bag), so I can take it out all ready to fill whenever I need it.  put it in the freezer for several hours/overnight first, then it will be frozen hard enough to stack the pie plates with unbaked crusts.

All ready to go--I used these two for pumpkin pie (I still have scraps in the freezer)

I also like re-rolling the scraps–even though all the chefs say not to do that–and making the scraps into a quick cinnamon roll.  Roll out all of the scraps in a rectangle, then sprinkle in brown and white sugar, cinnamon/nutmeg, raisins, pecans, butter, then roll up and bake.

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