When you mention that you are on a quest for the perfect pie crust recipe, the thing you hear most often is "Oh! -Insert dear pie making friend or relative's name here- makes a delicious pie crust! Let me get you the recipe!"
Little does your well meaning friend know, pie crusts that have been passed through families don't have recipes. You consider yourself lucky if a flour encrusted recipe card turns up and even luckier if there are actual measurements on the card. More likely than not the 'recipe' looks something like this:
Flour
Butter
Shortening
A dash of salt
A pinch of sugar
And it's true, this is exactly what you need to make a pie crust. However, I'm on the hunt for something a little more scientific. So I started with a cookbook that never lets me down... The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. Chances are, you have this book on your bookshelf somewhere. Just look for the red checkered cover.
Recipe for Pastry for Double Crust Pie
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
8 to 10 tablespoons very cold water
I stuffed this pie crust with an apricot and cranberry filling, very basic and delicious.
This pie crust was quite beautiful! It baked out to be a lovely color and quite flaky. I opted out of making a closed top due to my complete lack of coordination in rolling out this dough. Quite honestly I spent more time piecing this dough together than I did eating, mixing, cutting out little stars and creating the delicious filling. And rolling it out? Forgettaboutit. Complete disaster.
It held together very well despite the massacre and for my first time trying to get the water to fat ratio down I was quite pleased with myself. Unfortunately there was NO flavor involved in this crust.
Lessons learned this time around: Add more stuff.
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