Apparently, it is very old fashioned if you make pie crust from scratch anymore. I grew up with it being normal. Grandma Alice makes pie crust. Mom makes pie crust. (Ok, maybe it isn't normal on the Jones side of the family, but since Mom married in, it has been her job). Something we did the week of Thanksgiving was make pie crust. And maybe near Dad's birthday, and Valentine's Day too. Oh, and any time you have lots of apples. I think apple pie with a lattice crust on top was the first kind of pie Bippy and I made by ourselves (our parents had left already and Grandma Deane and Pa Ray were coming to stay with us for the weekend, and we wanted to surprise them...we never thought maybe we were too young to be "allowed" to turn the oven on when parents were gone)!
All this to say, I think making homemade pie crust is easy. And I just wrote the recipe down from memory. Pwned.
Pie Crust
2 1/4 c. flour
1 c. crisco
1t salt
1/4 c. cold water
In a large mixing bowl (preferably not metal, plastic doesn't make a terrible scraping noise as you use a pastry blender or 2 knives to blend in the crisco), mix the flour and salt together.
Take 1/3 c. of the flour-salt mixture out and reserve.
Cut the crisco into slices so it can be spread out on top of the flour. Use a pastry blender or two criss-crossing knives to blend in and chop up the crisco.
Your dough should now look like this! Now add the 1/3 c. of reserved flour-salt mixture to the 1/4 c. cold water to make a paste.
Pour the paste on top of the rest of the ingredients in the bowl.
Stir flour paste into the chopped up crisco flour. And now the part I was unable to get pictures of because I was home alone.
WASH YOUR HANDS. TAKE OFF YOUR RINGS. And use your hands to mix the dough together! It doesn't need to be kneaded, just mixed together and formed into two equal-size balls.
Now that you have the dough divided up for your two crusts (either two bottoms, or a bottom and a top), prep your rolling out surface. This is extremely important!!!
You need to get enough flour under the dough so that it doesn't stick to the counter (ok, some people have big cutting boards or something to roll dough out on, like you would have to use if you have tile, but Bippy and I got lazy because we had to either stand on a chair or climb on the counter to get the big, heavy pie roll out cutting board, so we started just flouring up the counter).
Use your hands to squish the dough into a flatish circle. Put some flour on top to help the rolling pin not to stick. You probably will need to keep adding flour to the rolling pin to prevent sticking.
Tips on rolling out pie dough:
-Don't just roll in 2 directions. Roll in ALL directions, to keep it in a circle shape.
-If areas start cracking and splitting, roll around the outer edges of the pie crust and roll those areas in together to "heal" the cracks (they will only get bigger as you roll outwards).
-Only roll in one direction at a time. I know that sounds contradictory to what I said before, but that I mean is, if you are pushing the top of the dough away from you, do so in continuous strokes away from you, and pick up the rolling pin and place it back in the middle. Pulling back toward you will allow the crust to stick to the rolling pin if it is getting sticky.
-Roll the crust so it's really thin. At least until it seems really thin. Maybe 3mm? On Pinterest I saw somewhere it said to use the thick end of a chopstick to show when to stop rolling pie crust. That is SO THICK!!! No wonder I don't like store-bought pie crust!
To make sure your crust is big enough, you can set the pie pan on top of it, and see if it look like the crust will come up and over the pie pan sides.
So once you have your beautifully rolled out perfect to size pie crust, now you have to get it off the counter and into your pie pan! Use a spatula-scraper thing, the thinner the better. I use a stainless steel one. You want to loosen the pie crust from the counter and fold it over (folding is going to make it easier to move and not break).
Pick up your quartered crust and place in pie pan. Unfold to fit in pan. Support the outer edges of the crust as you press the crust lightly into the bottom of the pan and in the fold of the pan (otherwise it will pop up as it cooks-if you are making a pie that calls for a precooked crust, making the volume for pie filling smaller).
Trim the excess edges off the crust. You want to leave enough just to fold over onto the lip of the pie pan (to crimp).
To crimp the edge of your pie crust, start with the edge opposite from you. Position your thumbs parallel to the edge of the pie pan on the inside edge of the crust and your pointer fingers parallel to the edge of the pie pan on the outside edge of the crust so they are in "pinching" position. You are going to make little pinching motions, both lightly squeezing your thumb and pointer together, as well as pushing the two pair of fingers toward each other (so the off-the-finger edges of the thumb nails come together).
Your pie crust is now ready to go in the oven (if you have a recipe like meringue pies that call for a cooked pie crust).
If your recipe calls for a cooked pie crust:
-Use a fork to poke holes in the sides and bottom of the crust. This is to prevent bubbles, but still check as you are baking so you can pop them if they do occur.
-Bake at 400℉ for 12-15 minutes or until light brown and flaky looking.
-Fill with pie filling!
-Fill the pie crust.
-Bake according to recipe directions for the inside of the pie.
If you ended up with a little bit of extra dough after making both pie crusts, you can make a sweet little treat that happens to be Daddy's favorite!
Take out a cookie tray (we use Airbake, they're the best). Roll out the leftover dough onto the cookie tray.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Cut into squares with a knife.
Bake at 400℉ (or whatever your pie is baking at) for a few minutes until it looks crispy and done. Honestly, I don't know how long we cook it. The timers are always busy timing other things (like the pie!), so we just keep checking on it! Maybe 8-15 minutes?
