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I used to laugh when I heard the expression, “easy as pie.” There was nothing easy about pie. Making a crust was difficult–it always came out too tough, soggy, or just wasn’t good. Rolling it out was always difficult–it either stuck to the board or the rolling pin, or it fell apart. Then there was the filling challenge, especially fruit fillings, which tended to be too runny, or too thick. I like a pie filling that is just right, and in a separate post will offer some guidance on fruit pie filling.

One day, many years ago, I was visiting my husband’s family in the mid-west. His grandmother, Cleone Wadman, was 90 years old then Ken always bragged about her pies, and her pie crust, so when I was talking to her, I told her that I heard about her fantastic pies. She perked right up and volunteered to teach me to make a pie crust.

We were at an ordinary kitchen table. “I haven’t done this in years” she said, “I’ve probably forgotten how to do it.” She dumped a pile of flour on the table–she didn’t measure it. She said “that looks like about right amount.” She added a generous pinch of salt with her fingers, a tad of sugar, and mixed it together with her hands. Next, she took a stick of butter and some crisco, broke it up with her fingers, and mixed it in with her hand into a lumpy mess, and then sprinkled a little water over it until it formed a ragged dough. She explained that the best crust is made with pure lard. “Here,” she said, “feel this.” She encouraged me to stick my hands in. “This is too dry.” She added a little more water. “This is right. Feel it.” I felt it. She didn’t bother refrigerating the dough, or adding ice water. Her process was straight forward and unencumbered by pretention. She mixed some cut apples, some cinnamon and sugar. Rolled the crust out effortlessly and threw it all together. We had a delicious homemade pie that night after dinner, and the crust was perfect!

It took me many years of trial and error to get to the point of feeling like making a pie is easy. The lesson I took away from Cleone that was the key to crust-making is learning to recognize the look and feel of the dough. I still measure out my flour and fat, but I know how to make dough by look and feel. Another thing I learned from Cleone is not to overwork the dough. As for fillings for fruit pies, it was hit or miss until I discovered quick tapioca as a thickener. Now I have the filling down too. Below, I will share my process for making a basic crust in hopes that frustrated piemaker friends will advance their own pie-making skills, and get to the point where they think that making pie is actually as easy as pie.

My Standard Pie Crust

Makes 1 double-crust or latticed top pie.

Ingredients

2.5 c All-purpose flour
1t salt
0-2T sugar (depending on pie)
8T chilled unsalted butter
6T chilled crisco (I keep it in the freezer)
7T-8T ice water

Note on fat: you can use all butter, all lard, all Crisco (Ick), basically solid fats work. I havent tried cold coconut oil, but it would be worth an experiment if you were making a coconut pie or something tropical.

Instructions

I used to always use the food processor to make my dough. Then one day out of the blue, I decided to forego the chore of getting it out and to do all of my mixing with my hands, as Cleone had done. I haven’t looked back.

Put flour, salt, and sugar in mixing bowl and stir it together to evenly distribute ingredients. Feel free to use a spoon or a whisk.

Next cut butter and fat into chunks. I prefer doing this with a knife, as the warmth of your hands tends to melt the fat and you want to have pieces of fat visible in your final dough, Mix into flour mixture loosely. Working quickly, pinch and mix chunks into the flour, but just to the point where none of the fat is sticking to your fingers, and it looks like a mix of meal and lumps.

Drizzle ice water over the top. I usually start with 7 tablespoons, mix together rapidly with the other ingredients. When water is incorporated pinch a small amount together to see if it stays together. If it doesn’t, add a little more water until it does.

When it looks and feels good to you, dump dough onto a surface. I use a piece of parchment paper.

Press dough together until it forms a solid mass. I do this by folding parchment paper around it to keep my hands relatively dough-free.

Divide dough into to equal parts. I eyeball it.

Form each part into round disks that are about a half inch thick. You should be able to see pieces of butter in the dough at this point.

Turn on oven to pre-heat to 400º Farenheit.

Wrap in the parchment paper and put in the fridge or freeze to chill while you work on your filling. You can leave it in the fridge for several days, or you can even freeze it for use at a later date (but you will have to thaw it well before you use it).

When you are ready, to roll out your dough, sprinkle a surface with flour. I have a silcone pastry mat, but have rolled it on the counter, a wooden board, and even on parchment a time or two.

Take a round of dough out of the fridge and start rolling gently from the center of the disk outward in all direction. If you have a rolling pin with handles, I have found that it works better not to use them. Put pressure directly on the roller.  After I have rolled a bit, I pick the round up, refresh flour underneath, and flip the disk over. Rotate dough, and keep it free from sticking. If you didn’t put enough water in, you will get a lot of cracks, but don’t despair. Your crust will be hard to handle, but it will work out in the end. A crust that is too dry is better than one that is too wet in the end. A lesson for the next time. I roll mine out so that it is about 14″ in diameter for a deep dish pie. Gently, lift one edge of crust over the rolling pin, and use the rolling pin to release and carry the crust to your pie plate. Lay it in loosely so that you can adjust the position. Then press crust into bottom. If you have broken bits or thin coverage you can patch with excess dough.

Fill pie. Brush crust with an egg-white and water mixture and sprinkle with sugar. I used decorative clear crystallized sugar, but you can use regular granulated if you don’t have it, or omit it altogether, depending on what kind of pie you are making.

Put pie in oven and decrease temperature immediately to 375º F, bake for 50 minutes or so. If it is a fruit pie, it should be bubbling up through the vents or latticed top. If it isn’t, leave it in for a few minutes. If your oven runs hot and you find the edges are getting too dark, protect edges with foil. We sure to put a cookie sheet under your pie in case it overflows.

Just a few different pies that I have made with this crust recipe. The principles you learn in making this basic crust will tranfer to other crust recipes too! Good Luck and happy baking.