My mom really drilled it into me through the years that a good pie crust is made with Crisco. So much so that I make sure I keep Crisco on hand mostly just for when I make pie crust. I love a good shortening crust and when you use low gluten pastry flour it can be even more amazing. When I have tried crusts with oil or butter in the past they have always been "tough" to me. Especially an oil crust. Now if this is all you have available, you just have to go with it and the oil crust recipe in the above pie crust post is a decent option. Recently I got a new cookbook called Homemade Pantry. It has a basic pie crust that is made with butter that I decided to try. It has actually been quite good to us in the ways I've used it. If you can't get or don't have Crisco, this is a very good all butter pie crust recipe that I have slightly adapted from this cookbook (mostly just simplifying the method--I'm all about cutting corners when I can!). Hope this helps in this holiday season!
All Butter Pie Crust
Makes 2 pie crusts
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cubed
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold water
Begin by placing the water and vinegar in a freezer safe container. Mix together and put in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place flour and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well. Cut in the cubed butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs--like clumpy sand almost. You can also do this in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or in a food processor and save yourself the arm workout! (Careful not to over do it in a food processor!)
If your mixture has warmed significantly, or if you live in a warm, humid place, you may want to put the whole bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Remove water/vinegar mixture from freezer and add it to the flour/butter mixture. Mix together just until it comes into a ball.
Split the ball as evenly as you can into two smaller balls. Shape into discs and flatten slightly. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, or up to several days (you can also freeze these for much later use).
Remove dough discs from fridge about 10-15 minutes before you want to roll them out. Lightly dust your counter with flour and unwrap dough.
Roll out with even strokes from the center of the ball, pushing and pulling with your rolling pin in a uniform way. This will keep the dough as circular as possible. Roll out until the dough is about 1 inch bigger around than your pie plate--you can test it by placing it over top of the rolled out dough.
Carefully fold the dough in half and transfer it over to your pie plate.
Gently reopen and adjust the dough to fit--do not stretch it. It may not be picture perfect! Readjust, overlap, and press in as needed.
Fold under the edges of the dough around the edge of the pie plate. This will create a thicker edge up on the top, which is the best part, if you ask me! You can also trim them if its too much dough.
Using your fingers you can make a pinched edge on the lip of the pie. You can also press it with a fork if you like that look. If you plan to use the second dough disc on top, you would wait until your filling is put in and it is rolled out and placed on top to fix up your edges.
Use as needed for recipes calling for an unbaked pie shell. If you need a pre-baked crust, I typically bake crust at 425F (220C) for about 10-14 minutes--it should look dried and be slightly browning. You'll want to prick it a little with a fork first.
*If you use both discs on one double crust pie, you may have some extra dough! My mom used to always roll this out, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake on a cookie sheet. Then us girls had little cinnamon pie crust cracker type pieces for a treat!
All Butter Pie Crust
Makes 2 pie crusts
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cubed
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold water
Begin by placing the water and vinegar in a freezer safe container. Mix together and put in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place flour and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well. Cut in the cubed butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs--like clumpy sand almost. You can also do this in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or in a food processor and save yourself the arm workout! (Careful not to over do it in a food processor!)
If your mixture has warmed significantly, or if you live in a warm, humid place, you may want to put the whole bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Remove water/vinegar mixture from freezer and add it to the flour/butter mixture. Mix together just until it comes into a ball.
Split the ball as evenly as you can into two smaller balls. Shape into discs and flatten slightly. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, or up to several days (you can also freeze these for much later use).
Remove dough discs from fridge about 10-15 minutes before you want to roll them out. Lightly dust your counter with flour and unwrap dough.
Roll out with even strokes from the center of the ball, pushing and pulling with your rolling pin in a uniform way. This will keep the dough as circular as possible. Roll out until the dough is about 1 inch bigger around than your pie plate--you can test it by placing it over top of the rolled out dough.
Carefully fold the dough in half and transfer it over to your pie plate.
Gently reopen and adjust the dough to fit--do not stretch it. It may not be picture perfect! Readjust, overlap, and press in as needed.
Using your fingers you can make a pinched edge on the lip of the pie. You can also press it with a fork if you like that look. If you plan to use the second dough disc on top, you would wait until your filling is put in and it is rolled out and placed on top to fix up your edges.
Use as needed for recipes calling for an unbaked pie shell. If you need a pre-baked crust, I typically bake crust at 425F (220C) for about 10-14 minutes--it should look dried and be slightly browning. You'll want to prick it a little with a fork first.
*If you use both discs on one double crust pie, you may have some extra dough! My mom used to always roll this out, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake on a cookie sheet. Then us girls had little cinnamon pie crust cracker type pieces for a treat!
Hello from Berlin! I knew your blog because your sister recommend me and since then I fall in love with many of your recipes. My favourite ones are the pies and the sweet ones :P This one from here I tried with whole flour and it works very well!
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