Pie Crust

A classic American pie crust based on a recipe Annie learned at a commercial cooking school. The egg makes it easier to work the dough.
Makes three 9-inch crusts. Officially it makes four but you have to be really good at rolling out the dough and it's too thin anyway. Scaling down this recipe to make fewer crusts is hard because of the egg. I use a pair for an apple pie and one more for a lemon meringue or punkin pie.

The choice of fat or fats should vary depending on preference and how the crust will be used. Butter is good in an apple pie, but not in a punkin pie. If you use all butter, the crust will be crumbly and difficult to work. The flavor can be too strong for some people. Crisco makes a flaky crust with a neutral flavor. Lard makes a flaky but flexible crust with a slight bitter taste - perfect for meat pies. Combining butter and lard, butter and Crisco, or all three gives the best crusts in my opinion.

The choice of flour depends on how "hearty" you like your pie. All-purpose or bread flour makes a light colored crust. I like half whole wheat and half all-purpose or bread flour. You'll need to use more water with whole wheat flour.

Ingredients

• 3 c flour (any combination of all-purpose, bread, and whole wheat)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 c fat (any combination of Crisco, lard, and butter)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp white vinegar (can substitute 1 ½ tsp lemon juice, but not flavored vinegars)
• ¼ c + 1 tsp water (or ¼ c + 2 ½ tsp if using lemon juice) (add about 2 tsp for each cup of whole wheat flour used)

Tools

• large round-bottom bowl
• small bowl
• pastry blender
• 1 c dry measure
• ¼ c liquid measure
• 1 tsp measure
• fork
• butter knife
• 9-inch pie plate - glass is best
• large board for rolling out crust
• rolling pin

Put the flour and salt into the large bowl. Mix briefly. Add 1 c fat cut into pieces. Use a pastry blender to break up the fat until it's the size of small peas. Use the butter knife to clear the pastry blender occasionally.

Use the fork to beat the egg in the small bowl. Add the vinegar (or lemon juice) and water and stir briefly.

Make a well in the flour mixture. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture all at once, except for the last teaspoon or so. Stir quickly with the fork. Add the last bit of liquid if the mixture is too dry. Add another teaspoon of liquid if necessary. The exact amount of liquid depends on the flour, but you'll get a feel for it. I used to make it fairly dry, but now I find it's easier to make it a bit wetter and live with a little sticking when rolling it out.

Knead the dough briefly in the bowl and then cut the dough into three equal pieces. Form each into a disc. Wrap the unused one(s) in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed. They keep for a week or two. Use the largest for the bottom crust of an apple pie.

Roll out the crust on a floured board. Turn over and add flour occasionally to keep it from sticking. Roll from the center out. Push the edges in occasionally to keep them from splitting and to keep the edge even. The dough should be rolled out several inches larger than the pie pan. Gently lift onto pie pan, or wrap around rolling pin to move the crust, or fold in quarters and then unfold on the pie plate.

For baked pie shells, prick the bottom with a fork a dozen times or so, or use aluminum foil and pie weights, or both. Bake at 450° for about 12 minutes, watching carefully near the end. When almost done baking, brush on some egg yolk (which you'll have plenty of if you're making lemon meringue pie) and return to the oven for a minute or so. This will prevent the filling from making the crust soggy. For filled pies, brush a little water around the edge of the bottom crust before putting on the top crust if you want a really good seal. Then fold the top over the bottom and press with a fork.