Lovely Flaky Pie Crust
After my last recipe, Lemon Meringue Pie, I got a lot of compliments from family and friends. There was just a little BUT though (okay, maybe a big one). And that was ‘but what kind of pie crust should I use?’.
Basically, you can use any crust you want. However, the one I use for the Lemon Meringue Pie is actually a very slight adaptation of a recipe that I came across on one of my favorite blogs The Pioneer Woman. She writes about a lot of things, one of them, food. Her ‘Perfect Pie Crust‘ recipe actually was quite similar to one of my own recipes except for the whole freezing thing and the Crisco. But I have to say, she is right about the Crisco, it does make a difference.
So without further ado, here’s the recipe, my slightly adapted version of Pioneer Woman’s Perfect Pie Crust:
First you grab all your essentials, flour, ice cold water, vinegar, salt, Crisco, butter and optional, but really nice for a sweet pie, a lemon for some lemon zest and a little icing sugar. (Yes, I know, I forgot to add butter to the picture, just imagine it’s hidden behind the Crisco…)
Next, you add your flour into a bowl.
Add the butter and the Crisco. If you don’t have any Crisco, you can just use all butter, or substitute the Crisco for margarine. But it won’t be as flaky.
Take two knives and mix this up just a little.
Next you add in the lemon zest.
And the icing sugar. To be completely honest, you actually can add the zest and icing sugar together with the butter as well, but I kind of forgot to add them when I started… And it’s nice to just have the butter just a little chopped up already before adding more stuff.
Next take your knives again and mix it all until it resembles a nice crumbly dough mixture.
Then, in a separate bowl, beat an egg.
Add the egg mixture to the crumbly dough mixture.
And add vinegar and the ice cold water to the egg mixture. Really make sure that the water is ice cold. I usually just have a glass of water with ice cubes in it to make sure the water stays cold while I’m mixing up my other ingredients.
Now you add the salt which you can hardly see in this picture…
This picture is much better! As I said, now you add the salt.
Then you take a spoon and gently mix all the ingredients till they’re incorporated.
Now take the dough and form into three evenly sized balls. Put each of the balls in a separate Ziploc bag.
With a rolling pin gently flatten each ball.
Flatten it into something like this. Having it rolled out like this will save some room in the freezer and it will make it easier to roll out later.
Now take the three rolled out pieces of dough and stick them in the freezer for at least 15-20 minutes. You can keep it in the freezer for a couple of weeks.
When you’re ready to use the dough take one of the bags out to make one pie crust and allow to thaw for 15 minutes (shorter if you’ve just put it in the freezer for the 15-20 minutes).
Now I’ve kind of forgot to take a picture of the next steps, so you’ll just have to imagine it.
Put some flour on the counter and tip the pastry out of the bag onto the counter. Starting at the center and working your way out roll out the dough so that it’s about ½ inch/1.5cm larger than your pie pan. If the dough is sticking to your counter just use a spatula to gently scrape it off, add a little flour to the counter top again and tip the dough over.
When you’ve finished rolling the dough carefully lift of the dough from the surface of the counter into the pie pan. Gently press the dough against the corner of the pan. Go around the pie pan pinching and tucking the dough to trim and neaten the edges.
That’s basically it. Now you have two choices:
1. Add some fruits into the pie pan and put it in the oven. You can even cover it with another piece of crust.
2. Blind bake the crust (<< You need to do this for the Lemon Meringue Pie)
Blind baking the pie crust:
To blind bake the crust put parchment paper onto the dough in your pie pan and fill with dry beans or rice. Put into a preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and beans and bake for another 5-8 minutes until the pastry has a nice pale golden color and is cooked. Set aside for later use.
And there you have it, a nice, blind baked Pie Crust, ready to use for pies such as the Lemon Meringue Pie.
I hope you like this crust as much as I do and will use it for your pies!
| Servings |
pie crusts |
- 1 cup Crisco 225 g (vegetable shortening)
- 1/2 cup butter 115 g
- 3 cups all-purpose flour 385 g
- 1 egg
- 5 tbsp cold water
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar
- 1/2 lemon zest of ½ a lemon
- 1 pie pan 9 inch
Ingredients
| |
- Put Crisco, butter and flour into a large bowl and using two knives work the Crisco and butter into the flour for about 1 minute. Add the lemon zest and confectioner’s sugar and work into the flour for another 2 or 3 minutes, until it starts to look like crumbs of dough.
- In another bowl beat the egg and pour it into crumbly dough mixture. Add 5 tbsp of cold water, 1 tbsp of white vinegar and 1 tsp of salt. Stir together gently until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
- Take the dough and form 3 evenly sized balls. Place each ball into a large Ziploc bag. Using a rolling pin, slightly flatten each ball of dough (about ½ inch/1.5cm thick) to make rolling easier later and minimize space in the freezer. Seal the bags and place them in the freezer until you need them. (If you will be using it immediately it’s still a good idea to put in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes to chill.)
- When you are ready to use the dough to make a crust, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw for 15 minutes.
- Tip the pastry onto a lightly floured surface then roll out, starting at the center and working your way out. (If the dough seems moist, just sprinkle some flour over the top). If the dough is sticking to the counter top use a spatula and carefully scrape it up and flip it over and continue rolling until it’s about ½ inch/1.5cm larger in diameter than your pie pan.
- Lift the dough carefully from the surface of the counter into the pie pan. Gently press the dough against the corner of the pan. Go around the pie pan pinching and tucking the dough to trim and neaten the edges.
- Omit the sugar and lemon rind for more savory recipes.
- You can blind bake the crust one day in advance if needed, just wrap in foil till you need it.
- Prick the entire bottom of the dough with a fork to stop the pastry from rising and getting bubbles while in the oven.