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When I talk to my friends about holiday baking, they are all in when it comes to cookies and cakes. However, when we talk pie, the conversation always goes to what brand of pie crust do you prefer! I couldn’t believe it! Everyone is so intimidated by pie crust, but in actuality it is one of the easiest things to throw together, especially if you have a food processor.
With a variety of home-canned pie fillings on hand, I can whip up a pie at a moments notice, and before the oven is finished preheating, I have my pie crust ready to go.
Perfect Pie Crust
Six simple ingredients never tasted so good! This quick and easy pie crust is a slight tweak on my grandmother’s recipe. The perfect pie crust is made with a few pantry/freezer staples that everyone should keep in their kitchen – all purpose flour; salt; lard; butter; sugar; and water.
In the bowl of your food processor, combine the flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse a few times to combine. Then, add in the very cold butter and lard. You want your fats to stay as cold as possible so your pie crust is tender and flaky. Pulse in your butter and lard until the mixture begins to look like wet sand, and sticks together a little when you squeeze it.
Add the ice water in a tablespoon at a time, and pulse just until the pie crust begins to pull together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and press it together to form a ball. You don’t want to knead it like bread dough, just press it all together.
Wrap the ball in plastic wrap, and pop it in the freezer for 5 minutes while you clean up your work space, wash the dough from your hands, and make sure your oven is up to temperature for your recipe.
Cut your dough ball in half so you have a bottom and top crust. Roll out your crust and place it in the pie plate. For a single crust pie, crimp your edges and fill the pie. For a double crust pie, fill your bottom crust, top with the other rolled out crust, and then crimp the two pieces together. Bake according to your favorite pie recipe.
Baking Cheat Sheet
With the holidays coming, and all of the baking that goes along with that, make sure you always have enough of the basics on hand for your recipe. Nothing is worse than getting started on baking day to realize part way in you are out of flour or sugar!
I created this little cheat sheet, and have it printed out in a few places … inside my favorite cookbook, in the pantry, and even directly on the sugar & flour canisters. Now, I total up the amounts of sugar, brown sugar, flour, butter, eggs, etc that I need to make all of my recipes and then buy enough ingredients in a single trip to the store.
Perfect Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp - 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup lard
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup ice cold water
Instructions
-
In the bowl of your food processor, combine the flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse a few times to combine. Then, add in the very cold butter and lard. You want your fats to stay as cold as possible so your pie crust is tender and flaky. Pulse in your butter and lard until the mixture begins to look like wet sand, and sticks together a little when you squeeze it.
-
Add the ice water in a tablespoon at a time, and pulse just until the pie crust begins to pull together.
-
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and press it together to form a ball. You don't want to knead it like bread dough, just press it all together.
-
Wrap the ball in plastic wrap, and pop it in the freezer for 5 minutes while you clean up your work space, wash the dough from your hands, and make sure your oven is up to temperature for your recipe.
-
Cut your dough ball in half so you have a bottom and top crust. Roll out your crust and place it in the pie plate. For a single crust pie, crimp your edges and fill the pie. For a double crust pie, fill your bottom crust, top with the other rolled out crust, and then crimp the two pieces together. bake according to your favorite pie recipe.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Grandmom Mitchell
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I need to try this. I always just cheat and buy pre-made.
I used to use the pre-made all the time too. This one tastes so much better!
All sorts of OH YUM indeed. I can’t believe the holidays are basically REALLY here! Thanks for sharing this I’ve to pin it to remember to try it out!