This ties in to the apple pie I made during Thanksgiving week. It was my first time making apple pie or making a pie from scratch, including the pie crust. I didn’t have vegetable shortening. In fact, I haven’t bought it in over 15 years. I know there is an organic version of it but I really didn’t want to go to the store so I looked up a recipe that only used butter and came across a fabulous recipe by crazyforcrust. Of course, butter doesn’t render the flakiness that you would find in a crust made with shortening but it tasted delicious. We like the taste of butter anyway so it worked out just fine.
Crazyforcrust states that cold butter and ice water are the keys to a successful crust. Before you start, dice your butter and then put it back in the refrigerator. Then fill a measuring cup with ice and water.
Another recommendation was to transfer the crust to the pie plate by rolling it up on the rolling pin.
- 1¼ cups of all-purpose flour
- ½ cup of salted butter, diced and chilled -
- 2-4 tbsp of ice water
- ¼ tsp of salt
- The butter must be diced and cold before you start starting. It is also very important to use ice water.
- Add flour and salt in the food processor. Pulse once to mix.
- Add butter and process until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add 2 tablespoons of water and pulse a few more times.
- Add a tablespoon of extra water and pulse until the dough forms a ball. If you find your mixture is too dry, you can add another tablespoon of water. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface.
- Press the dough ball into a disk and roll to about ¼" thickness. Be sure to flip and rotate your dough as you go so it does not stick to your surface. Roll out the dough to a few inches larger than your pie plate (about 12" for a 9" pie plate).
- Place in pie plate and press to fit. Tuck under any overhang and crimp or use the tines of a fork to decorate the edges. Chill until ready to fill.
- This pie crust is great for filling and the recipe makes 1 crust that fits comfortably in a 9" pie plate. For a bigger pie plate or for a double crust, double the recipe.
If you double the recipe for a 2 crust pie: start with 3 tablespoons of water and add more as needed. The rest of the items can be doubled exactly.