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| Basic Pie Crust If you want to create your own pie crust, your own personalized design, it's really not that hard, if you just follow a few instructions... |
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons granulated sugar
1-1/2 cup fat (Shortening makes a flakier crust whereas butter gives it more flavor but is less flaky)
Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Using a pastry blender, cut the fat into the dry ingredients as quickly as possible until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the ice water over the mixture and combine with a fork or your fingertips just until the dough holds together. If the dough seems too crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Better a tiny bit too much water than too little, resulting in a crust that crumbles when you transfer it from the wax paper. Also, the more you have to work with it, in a lattice for example, the easier it will fall apart if it isn't moist enough.
Turn half of the mixture onto a sheet of waxed paper, gather into a ball, and press into a thick flat disk about 5 inches in diameter. Bring the paper around to enclose the dough and refrigerate for a bout 15 minutes to "relax" the dough for a more tender crust.
Tips:
Bottom crust: Place the dough between two pieces of wax paper and roll until larger than pie pan and about 1/8in thick. Carefully roll dough with top layer of wax paper over the rolling pin. place on pie pan and carefully unroll. Remove wax paper one inch at a time. Press corners into pan and trim edges to just beyond edge of pan.
Top crust: For traditional completely covered double-crust pie, Repeat the above procedure. Before rolling onto rolling pin, make slits in dough. For lattice, cut dough into desired shapes or lattice and decorate as desired. Brush the exposed crust with cream, milk, or lightly beaten egg; (egg with milk or cream also works) beaten egg yolk mixed with a bit of water or cream produces a deep golden finish. For a crackle glaze, sprinkle with granulated sugar or a flavored sugar such as vanilla-sugar.
