[treeswarper]

Anybody got any never fail pie crust recipes that are not secret? I've been using the store bought but they are kind of spendy. When I make a crust from my mom's method, it turns out worse than hers. One needs to use a chainsaw for cutting the pie!

[treeswarper]

I don't have many huckleberries so will fall back to apple. I also have to make cookies today, and taste the salsa I made on Saturday. I think I put too many jalepenos into the salsa.

[Conrad]

We use sheep tallow in ours. Works great. (We happen to have an unending supply of sheep tallow.)

[More Cowbell]

[Joseph_in_Tacoma]

• 2 C flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 C + 1 Tbsp vegetable shortening
• Approx 4 Tbsp water

Mix together the flour, salt, and veggie shortening with a pastry blender. Now mix it some more. No, that's not enough. Mix it some more. (For best results, hand the pastry blender to a seven year old and tell him to mix. After he's been attacking the dough for 10 minutes, it's probably mixed enough.) Add the water. You'll need a bit more if it's a dry day, less if it's humid. Mix it with the pastry blender until it's just barely mixed. No really, JUST barely mixed. If you mix it too much it'll be suitable for boot repair, but not for pie. Squish the dough together into a ball. Flatten the ball so's it's an inch thick or so, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Walk away for at least an hour. Seriously, walk away. The crust needs to rest a bit. OK, now you can roll it out. Divide the dough into 2 lumps, one slightly larger than the other. The larger lump is your bottom crust. The smaller lump is either your top crust or play-dough for your seven year old Roll it out between 2 sheets of plastic wrap, one on top and one underneath. Peel the top sheet of plastic wrap off. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar. Leave that bottom sheet of plastic wrap on for now! Flip the crust into your pie dish - the cinnamon and sugar will let you slide it around to position it. Now you can peel off that second sheet of plastic wrap. (Don't forget this step.)

[Ski]

I just posted mine yesterday I made my first pies from instructions my mother gave me over the phone. That was.... 1980 ( ? ) and her recipe used 2 cups flour and 1 cup Crisco for a double shell. I remember verbatim how she said to do it: "You mix it up with two knives until it looks kind of like coarse corn meal." ( I never owned or used a "pastry blender" until about 5 years ago. ) It was always pretty heavy and dense, but that was okay- it's what I grew up on. Then about 10 years or so later, I married a Home Economics major. She liked my mom okay, but not her pie crust recipe. She used all butter- no shortening. ( Same as Martha Stewart. ) The one I posted yesterday is from years of trial and error- it seems to work best for me, and it's why my mother and three sisters elect me to bake the pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You don't want to over-mix it, either before or after you add the water: you'll end up with something along the line of Play-doh. If you spent more than 10 minutes making dough for two pies, you over-mixed it. There's a real fine line between "the perfect flaky crust" and concrete. It's not rocket science- it really is easy as pie.

[ree]

[joker]

My wife does a much better job than me with pie crusts. She's very loose about them looking really funky with holes that she has to patch and so forth, which means she really truly does minimal handling which a few of the posts above point out is key to your consistency issue... She also uses 100% butter which does make for a yummy crust but I think makes the whole crust handling thing even a little more tricky.

[touron]

There are a couple posts in the Cranberry Poll thread on pie crusts too...

[Conrad]

[Grizzy]

My wife just used a recipe that called for Vodka in the making of the pie crust. So is she ? or am I missing something? Weird

[Chippster]

[HunterConservationist]