Pies Pies Pies (and crust)!

Mmmmm, pie.  Pumpkin pie, apple pie, chocolate cream pie, lemon meringue pie…I could go on and on.

Along with soup, pie is something I could eat year round.

And it all starts with the crust.  Light and flaky that doesn’t overpower the tasty filling.  A nice golden brown crust edge is the perfect frame for the beautiful insides.  My stomach just started growling for pie.

My crust recipe is an old, tried and true gem from my mother in law, Gail.  For as long as I’ve known Mark, she has been the pie queen.  It was nothing for her to whip out 7, 8 or 9 pies at Christmas or Thanksgiving.  If you had a love for an obscure pie, she’d find a recipe and make it.  Mind you, all this was done before the internet and Pinterest.

Three ingredients, that’s it.  Flour, Crisco and cold water.  I bet you have those on hand right now, even if you’re full-timing in your RV.  When she taught me how to make my own crusts, she emphasized COLD water so now when I make pies, I put a few ice cubes in a juice sized glass and fill it with water.  It’s super cold, I tell ya.

Her other key point was to not make it too moist.  They key to a perfectly flaky crust was to know it’s ready when “you can put it into a ball.”

Without further adieu, I present Gail’s Pie Crust.

Measure flour and put in bowl.  Add 1/3 cup Crisco and blend with a fork.  Repeat with the other 1/3 cup of Crisco.

Add three tablespoons water on the side of the bowl and blend in.  Repeat with three more tablespoons.

It’s ready when you can just put it into a ball.

Roll out on heavily floured surface.  Flour the rolling pin as well.

I check the size by gently placing a pie plate on top of the dough.

The easiest way for me to get the crust from the counter to the pie plate is to roll it back onto the rolling pin then place it over the pie plate.  If the crust doesn’t roll up easily, I keep one little brown Pampered Chef pan scraper on hand for this job.  I run the scraper back toward the crust as I’m rolling it back onto the rolling pin.

Embrace and love the ugly crust.  Sometimes you have to gently press it back together after getting into the pie plate.  More times than I care to admit, the finished roll-out is more amoeba shaped than perfectly round which calls for the old-fashioned cut and paste.  By that I mean cutting some edge from one side and pasting it to the other side.  A gentle press together to seal for leakage and nobody will ever know.  Your pie crust won’t spill your secret and neither will I.

Print Recipe

Gail’s Pie Crust

Makes 2 crusts

• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup Crisco (1/3 & 1/3)
• COLD water

Measure flour and put in bowl.  Add 1/3 cup Crisco and blend with a fork.  Repeat with the other 1/3 cup of Crisco.

Add three tablespoons water on the side of the bowl and blend in.  Repeat with three more tablespoons.

It’s ready when you can just put it into a ball.  Roll out on heavily floured surface.  Flour the rolling pin as well.  The easiest way for me to get the crust from the counter to the pie plate is to roll it back onto the rolling pin then place it over the pie plate.

Some notes:

• You may need more water or less water depending on your climate.
• Recipe is easily cut in half for one crust.  I add 1/3 cup Crisco all at once; no need to divide that because who wants to do that math!
• If you have leftover crust or if the crust is too moist and sticky, don’t throw it away!  You can make what we call Cinnacrust.  Place rolled out dough on a cookie sheet sprayed with oil.  Dot with a good amount of butter and sprinkle as much cinnamon and sugar as you’d like.  Bake it in a 375 degree oven for a few minutes until it’s lightly browned around the edges.  I guess you could get fancy and cut it into nice, even pieces.  I leave it on the cookie sheet and let everyone break off their own pieces.  It doesn’t last long.
• I have perfectly cold granite at home which is an awesome (AWESOME!) surface for rolling out any kind of dough but my RV has Corian and since I haven’t made a pie in the RV yet, I can’t attest to this recipe’s RV friendly status.  You may want/need to use a rolling mat.