Pie crust

Blog post #358 of 365

I have a friend who has a pie party. A dinner party that concludes with everyone eating pies everyone invited has made and brought with them. Everyone exchanges recipes at the end of the night.  Kind of like a cookie party on a pie scale.

I am not good at pies. I would love to attend if everyone made the pies before dinner and I could watch the professionals.

Anyway I keep hearing the crust is the easy part. I get the concept of making the dough and cutting it with a pastry cutter to make it flaky and delicious but alas mine is usually rock hard and not buttery or flaky or delicious.

This year I am going to try again. Maybe only once but I am going to give it a go.

So here is the recipe someone recently passed on. I haven't tried it yet but I am told it is a 'no fail' recipe. We shall see.

What I'll need:
4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups shortening (Using butter flavor but has to be shortening.)
1 tablespoon Sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 egg
1/2 cup water

What I'll do:

Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together. Use a pastry cutter or fork to combine the wet and dry ingredients until dry ingredients are moist (not wet and sticky.) Separate into five parts and chill for 15 minutes or more before rolling out and forming your crust.. Each part makes one crust. I'm told they can be shaped into balls and frozen for future use but must be allowed to defrost on their own (no microwave or oven to help it along)

Now to see if this works! I'll let you know.

I should probably figure out some great fillings too. If you have great ones pass them along. Or if you have a better easy crust let me know.