The Perfect Pie Crust

A Cowboy's Wife — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:05:09 +0000

A good pie crust seems to be one of the harder things to make in the kitchen. Contrary to the title, mine are not perfect but I do feel like they come close to being great. I bet I’ve tried a gazillion pie crust recipes over the years and this one comes out just the way I like it and makes at least 4 which works out perfect if you’re making double crust pies. Mine has more of a darker yellow to it because I use fresh eggs to bake with.

What I truly enjoyed this time around, was using my grandmother’s pie plate. I’m sure many of you will remember the pattern; the Corning Ware with blue cornflowers. As great as the new stuff is, the old is what I love and what makes cooking so much fun to me. Doesn’t using things passed down make everything better, even taste better? She made a really great pecan pie, my grandmother that is. What I’d give for a few moments of conversation with her, while indulging in a piece of her pie…………

recipe below

Recipe: The Perfect Pie Crust

Ingredients

4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups Crisco shortening
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup ice water
1 Tbsp. vinegar

Instructions

Mix flour, salt, sugar, and shortening with pastry blender until crumbly. Add liquid ingredients just until blended. Roll out to fit pie plate. Makes 4-5 single crusts.

Quick Notes

I like to roll out the remaining dough into crusts and place waxed paper in-between, place in zip-loc gallon freezer bags and either refrigerate or freeze. A couple of tips to keep in mind for making the perfect crust are:

Refrigerate all ingredients, even the flour, prior to making the recipe.
You can use half lard, and half shortening for an even flakier crust.
Handle as little as possible with your hands.

Microformatting by hRecipe.

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Ol’ Fashion Peach n Cherry Pie

A Cowboy's Wife — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:23:45 +0000

Do you ever crave a good ol’ fashion pie? I do and this is one of our faves! If you have never had a Peach & Cherry pie, you don’t know what you are missing folks. This is a cowboy fave as most pies are……oh, and I love pie plates…*ahem*

INGREDIENTS:

2 Large ripe peaches, peeled and sliced
3 cups pitted fresh or frozen pie cherries
1/4 tsp. Almond extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 or 3 Tbsp. butter or margarine
pastry for double pie crust (store bought or from scratch)

DIRECTIONS:

Put prepared fruit and almond extract into a large bowl. Combine sugar and flour; sprinkle over fruit, tossing to mix.

Prepare pastry and fill bottom crust with prepared fruit. Cut butter into small pieces and dot top of fruit. Place top crust over fruit, trimming to allow 1/2″ to tuck under edge of lower crust. Pinch and crimp edge. With a sharp knife, make slits near center of pie.

Bake at 400′ oven for 45-55 minutes or until crust is brown and filling bubbles up through slits. Allow your pie to cool before serving! YUMMO

See that ice cream on the right? Coming in Spring….