I enjoy making pie every now and then. March 14th has become a tradition for me where I will make various pies to celebrate Pi day. But that is another post and more about the number pi and Pi day can be found here. The one question I do get asked when I make pie, is if I made the crust from scratch. I’m usually confused by this question and never consider buying a prepare crust, but it seems to be an option. The crust recipe I have always used is the one my other said she was taught and told never fails, the recipe on the Crisco shortening box. I believed this was the only way to make a pie crust but then learned that Crisco was a vegetable based fat and that crust could be made with pure lard or butter. Below is the Crisco shortening recipe that I have always used and also the Tenderflake lard recipe that I have also tried.
Crust (Crisco)
Ingredients
- 2c flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1c Cisco (vegetable shortening)
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 2 tbsp cold water
Instructions
- Mix flour and salt together
- Cut room temperature shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Beat egg, water and vinegar together.
- Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture with a fork.
- roll out onto a floured board.
- Divide dough in half and shape each half into a ball.
- Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and chill.
- When ready to use, roll each ball out into a circle about 0.5-1cm thick to fit pie plate.
- Fit into pie plate as needed.
Crust (Tenderflake, pure lard)
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 c flour (or 2c cake flour)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1c lard (Tenderflake)
- 4-5 tbsp cold water
Instructions
- Mix flour and salt together.
- Cut in lard until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add the water in slowly with a fork.
- Roll out onto floured board.
- Divide dough into half and shape each half into a ball.
- Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and chill.
- When ready to use, roll each ball out into a circle about 0.5-1cm thick to fit pie plate.
- Fit into pie plate as needed.
Yet more different pie crust recipes.
While I won’t go into the actual details of ingredients and instructions of other pie crust and pastry recipes here, I will describe them. For example,
- Pie crusts that use butter instead of shortening or lard.
- There is the rough puff pastry that is used for Portuguese custard tarts that is definitely a separate skill in its own right! I have made these tarts before and will have to get that recipe posted up soon.
- There are the graham crumb crusts and Oreo crumb crusts as well. These usually consist of cookies crumbs, butter and sugar mixed together and then pressed into the bottom on a pie plate.
- Then there are the gluten free crusts that use gluten free flour.
- I have even seen “crusts” that are made from sliced vegetables like potatoes or sweet potatoes. I’m not sure so such I would call these “crusts”.
- I have also seen wonton wrappers used as “crust” for little muffin sized pies.
From that list we can see that just about any pastry seems to include some kind of fat, flour and water for ingredients and then a technique for combining these ingredients to get whatever desired result.
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