Flakey Pie Crust: A Crust That Will Truly 'Make' Any Pie!!

Flakey Pie Crust   

This is my Favorite Pie Crust for Fruit Pies.  And it is really easy!!

Ingredients:

 2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 TBS sugar

¾ cup vegetable shortening

5-6 TBS Ice Water

Preheat oven: 400 degrees

Sift flour with salt and sugar.  Cut in shortening.  Use a pastry cutter until mixture resembles fine meal. 

Sprinkle with water a TBS at a time and mix lightly with a fork until the flour is moistened.

Roll dough into a ball.  Break into two pieces.  Roll* out each piece, on a floured surface into a large circle about an 1/8 inch thickness.  *When rolling, start from the center, and roll out.  Let your rolling pin do the work--marble or really heavy solid wood pins work the best.  Keep flipping and rotating crust, adding a little more flour as needed, until your crusts are the desired sizes.  This is one of the few pie crusts that is ok to bake right away however I still recommend chilling it for 1 hour in your fridge before rolling out.  I wrap my ball of dough in plastic wrap to chill it.  Chilling the dough will ensure a super flakey melt in your mouth crust!

Fit pie crust into your pie pan.  Prick (only for pre-baked crust) bottom and sides with a fork and flute edges (only for a single bottom shell pie--otherwise for fruit pies wait until you fill your pie with your fruit filling, add top pie crust, then flute the two edges together).  For an Apple Pie or another  2-pie crust, such as a fruit pie, do NOT prick bottom or sides and do not pre-cook.  I like to use glass pans for baking pies--mainly for looks but also the glass creates an even all over cooking for the perfectly baked pie!

Fill your pie with the pre-made Apple Pie Filing (see "Kiss Me, Sugar, Apple Pie" recipe under dessert or recipe label).  You will notice in the picture below the little pieces of butter on-top of the apples--see "Kiss Me, Sugar, Apple Pie" recipe for directions.

Top filled pie with the remaining rolled out crust.  Pinch top and bottom edges of the crust together;flute.  Poke a few holes so steam can escape.  You can get creative with designs if you'd like but this is the basic idea:

Brush top of crust with ½ TBS cold water and sprinkle ½ TBS coarse sugar (or regular sugar) on it.  Cover pie edges with 2 inch strips of foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil during the last 15 minutes of baking.  Bake 40-50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through the slits/holes in the crust.  Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours!

For baking an Apple Pie:

Heat over to 425 degrees

and bake 40 to 50 minutes until top is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through the slits in your pie.

For pre-baking a single bottom shell:
Heat over to 400 degrees

Bake 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown. 

This is by far the most flakely crust you will come across.  It truly "makes' this pie!  

Enjoy! Love, Tata