Perfect Pie Crust

My sister-in-law, Heather, won a national pie baking contest. She taught me how to make a perfect pie crust, and I am passing this skill onto you.

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

3 cups flour

1 3/4  teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup shortening

1/3 cold water

CRUST COOKING TOOLS:

9 ” pie plate

Large bowl

Pastry Blender

Plastic wrap

Wax paper or parchment paper

Rolling pin

Paring knife

Mix 3 cups flour, 1 3/4 teaspoons salt and 1 tablespoon sugar in a large bowl.

Cut it 1 cup shortening with a pastry blender.

NOTE: I recommend a good pastry blender, not one of those flimsy wire ones. Here is one from Amazon.com. It's only $6.50 and worth every penny. 

Click Here

Williams-Sonoma has a good one too that only costs $10. I have owned both of these and can recommend them both. 

Click Here

When you are done cutting in the butter, it will look mealy, like this. Then mix in 1/3 cup water and...

Form it into a ball of dough.

Place it on a large piece of plastic wrap on a counter.

Place a piece of wax paper (or parchment paper, which is even better) on top and press the pie dough flat with your hands. Try to keep it as close to the shape of a circle as possible.

Once you've gotten it as flat as you can, with your hands, use a rolling pin to flatten it more. And continue trying to keep the dough in the shape of a circle (as close as possible anyway).

Remove the wax paper. 

Roll the pie dough and the plastic wrap around your rolling pin.

Now unroll it over the top of your pie plate and form it around the edges.

Remove plastic wrap and cut around the edges of with a paring knife. Next, we add the pie filling and bake. 

If you are making a pie that requires a crust on top, like apple pie. You can follow the same directions  but put the crust on top.

Like this. 

Press a fork down on the edges of your pie crust to make it look pretty.

Cut slits, like so.

Brush your crust with whipping cream or half and half.

Cover your pie with foil and remove the foil for the last 20 minutes of the cooking time. This prevents the edges from getting burnt. NOTE: I no longer cut my foil into a circle. I realized that I don't need to do that. I just tear a sheet and cover.

Now eat your pie and enjoy.