Lately I have been making butter crusts. You can use this same recipe with vegetable shortening, like Crisco. For now though I am on a butter kick, especially since butter in Iowa is 1.99$ a pound. Since I'm used to paying at least 3$ a pound I just can't help myself!
The secret to making pie crust not so painful is get the dough COLD COLD COLD. You want to use COLD butter, and ICE water. Once your dough is assembled stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes before you even attempt rolling it.
I have used this crust for pot pies, meatball calzones, and fruit pies. The site where I found this states this is enough for two crusts. Perhaps I roll mine too thin, but I get enough dough for three 9" pies every time I make this.
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) salted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 6 to 8 Tbsp ice water
Mix butter with flour, salt, and butter until it forms little crumbs with pea sized pieces of butter. I do this with my hands.
Add water 1TBSP at a time. Stop at 6Tbsp and mix it together well by hand. Too much water will make the dough tough, so don't add the last two tablespoons of water unless you need it.
Work the dough just enough to form two disks do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes to 1 hour. If it is in the fridge longer than and hour you will need to let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes so that it is not too stiff and cold to roll.
Put 1/4 cup or so of flour down on your clean rolling surface. Place dough on floured surface, sprinkle more flour onto dough and roll it out adding more flour if dough sticks to rolling pin. Take a dinner knife (not a sharp pointy knife!) and slide it gently between counter and dough to loosen it from counter. Gently lift it and place into pie plate. I like to use the rolling pin to roll it up off the counter.
Trim overhang to 1/2 - 3/4 inch and fold under against the pie plate and flute edges. After I roll out both of the crusts I collect the scraps, form a ball, wrap with plastic, and stick in the freezer for another time.
Taste of Home has a nice step by step picture tutorial here.
