Making a Perfect Pie Crust

Making your own pie crust is so much better than the store bought! You have a great sense of accomplishment and it is one of the few activities where laziness is a virtue!

Supplies

• Bowl
• Rolling pin
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Plastic wrap
• Knife, fork
• Pie dish

Recipe

(will make both a top and bottom crust)

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose white flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, any variety. Recommended: sea salt or kosher salt.
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup (16 tablespoons) very cold unsalted butter or shortening, cut into cubes
• 8 tablespoons ice water.

Step by Step

Ingredients
Typical pie crust recipes have four main components: fat, flour, liquid and salt.

The fat will give the flour taste and serves as the glue of this flaky recipe. The liquid will make the dough soft and workable and the salt will create the great brown color.

Choosing your fat options:

1. Shortening will provide a flakier crust.
2. Butter will give it a better flavor.
3. Smart Balance is a great alternative to both. While the crust will not be as flaky, the fat and calories contained will be greatly reduced. [For examples of this choose any recipe off of the Light Pies page]

Chilling the butter/shortening will keep it from becoming completely mixed with the flour. If it becomes creamy – the dough will not be flaky.

Mixing the ingredients together with your hands or a pastry cutter, make sure that there are still small pea-sized amounts of butter in the mixture. Please note when you are mixing by hand- cut the chunks of butter really small. This will reduce the amount of time that your hands are on the mixture- which will prevent the butter from melting further. If you are worried- you can also use a fork.

Adding the water is best done one tablespoon at a time. This will allow you to check the stickiness of the dough. Really, the dough should not stick to your hands when mixed together- if it does, just add more flour- easy! But really try not to handle the dough too much- remember that the small amounts of butter should not be mixed thoroughly into the dough.

Chill out
The mixture should stick and stay together when pinched. At this point, cut the dough in half, lightly roll into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes.

(If you are not making the pie that day- you can freeze these guys for up to a month. Just let them thaw out in the fridge for about half a day or overnight)



Ready to Roll When you are ready to roll (ha!), fetch one of the dough balls and generously flour the surface you plan on using. Flatten softly with your hands, starting from the center and working out. Be sure to keep a nice circle shape with your smashing. Unless an amoeba shaped pie is your specialty.





Dust the top and grab your rolling pin. Just as before, start from the center and work outward, evenly and rotating often. The diameter should be 3-4 inches larger than the diameter of your pie plate.

For quick and easy clean up (i.e: lazy people, like me), just use wax paper to roll your dough in.

Transportation
Fold your dough in half, and then in half again. Take your dough triangle and place into the pie plate. Center and press firmly into the bottom of the plate. Trim the excess, leaving a ½ inch or so for fluting the edge of the pie.

When you have the filling prepared- fill the pie and cover with a lattice top or a standard double crust.

Lattice top pie: Are usually decorations that cover the top of a pie.

More conventionally they are weaved strips of dough (see picture) but you can also get creative and use cut out stars or holiday shapes [for more ideas see personalized pies]

Standard double crust top: Roll the dough similarly to the bottom crust. Place over filling. Fold the outside (bottom) edges of the pie crust over the top edges. Create the zig zag fluted design by placing your thumb on the underside and your first and middle fingers on the top- on each side of the thumb. Now crimp! You are not done- unless a one crimp pie is your specialty.

Continue crimping around the edges. The pie mixture is intended to bubble and boil inside this pie crust- so crimp hard. We don't want it exploding out of side.

Cut slits on the top- for the same boiling and bubbling reason listed before. This will allow the filling to vent.

First Impressions
For a shiny, happy appearance on the top, brush the top with egg whites and sprinkle with sugar.