Best Friend’s Perfect Pie Crust

For me, pie crust has always been one of those things that just NEVER worked out. At first, I thought it was the recipe. But after trying Ina’s and Ree’s, the Test Kitchen’s and Paula’s — even mom’s and grandma’s, I knew. It wasn’t them — it was me.

Nothing worked. Not one single recipe ever worked. Finally, my exasperated mom decided to give me a lesson in pie crust making. One afternoon, she came over & we got to work. As I think back on that day, I am suddenly wondering what we did with all the kids, they are not a part of this memory at all … hmmm. We can’t blame them for what happened next!

Flour flew, butter did it’s things and the chilled water was drizzled. She dumped the pie crust mixture out onto a prepared surface — just like every pie crust recipe instructs ((I should know)) and it stuck like wet playdoh. It was a sticky, gooey mess. A mess I knew all too well – worthy of no oven, or sweet filling. But instead fit only for the garbage. 

Her crust was a flop – in my kitchen, while I watched. “See!! I told you!!” No homemade pie crust will ever make it out of my kitchen alive!!”. She was shocked and from that day forward, she believed me and now makes the crust when I am in need ((in her kitchen)), and delivers it to me – true story.

And then I entered the Farm Girl Fair pie contest. At first, I was content to use a store-bought crust – and then my competitive side reared itself. I can’t submit a pie to a pie contest with a store-bought pie crust! 

That is when my sister-friend, Laura, and I concocted a plan. Being the close friend that she is, she was well aware of my pie crust making disabilities: “You cannot use a store-bought crust for the FGF pie contest!! I have a really good recipe & I will make the crust for you ahead of time”, she initially offered. But after a few minutes of trying to figure out how to make the pie crust and get it to me, she decided I needed to learn the craft for myself. I reminded her of my troubled pie crust past but she confidently assured me, you can do this, I promise! Isn’t that the show of a true friend?! Give a girl a pie crust, she only has one pie — teach a girl to make a pie crust, she has pies for life!

Five days before the pie contest, Laura came over to MY kitchen, it was time to conquer the curse. Here is her recipe, ((which makes one double pie crust)):

• 2 cups flour
• ¾ t salt
• ½ cup shortening
• ½ cup butter (cold butter)
• ½ cup water & ½ cup flour

Let’s jump right into the pie crust lesson, shall we?!

First, get a 20″ long ((approximate)) piece of parchment and place it on a clean work surface. Add the first three ingredients to a large mixing bowl and work the shortening into the flour/salt mixture by hand. It should look like the photo below when done.

Next, grate the cold stick of butter (we used salted) over the flour/shortening mixture.

Work the grated butter into the mixture until it reaches a sandy texture as shown below.

In a small mixing bowl, use a fork to combine the remaining flour and water until a paste forms.

Scoop the paste onto the butter & shortening, flour mixture, dusting a little of that same mixture over the paste.

With you hands, work the paste into the other ingredients until a loose ball forms. Pick up the bits of dough sticking to the sides and press it all into one disk. Cut the disk in half, forming two smaller disks, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready for use.

To use, preheat the oven to 400°. Unwrap one disk and place it on the floured sheet of parchment paper.

Make sure your rolling pin is floured as well & begin rolling out and rotating the disk 90° (this helps keep the pie crust dough circular) repeating until the desired thickness & diameter (slightly less than ¼”) is reached.

You can hold your pie plate over the dough to make sure you are on the right track.

Once the crust has been rolled, it is time to fold the paper and crust in half and carefully place the dough over the plate. This is where you will know whether or not you did a good job of prepping the parchment, so be sure to to dust the entire surface at the beginning.

Once the dough is situated in the plate, trim the edges, add a decorative crimp ((practice makes perfect)) & then press the bottom and sides into the plate. Apply a firm enough pressure to ensure the crust doesn’t slide down the sides as it bakes but not too much that you press through the dough.

It sounds harder than it is. But let me pause and show you what happened because I was being too gentle:

So be bold and press away, bottom and all sides. Then, using a fork, prick steam venting holes on the sides and bottom. This keeps the crust from bubbling up during the par-baking step.

Once the dough is pressed in, the edges are trimmed & crimped and the vent holes are pricked – place the pie crust into a preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Hopefully, your crust will look like this:

Either save the remaining dough disk for another pie or fill the pie with your favorite fruit filling and repeat the steps listed above, lay it over the filling, trim & crimp and bake according to you pie’s recipe instructions.