My grandma Ruby is or was at her time the best pie maker in town, her pies were known around the county. She made them at the restaurants that my grandparents owned and ran with their kids including my mom, they had more than one restaurant and in different counties. She made a variety of pies on a daily basis.
She taught me how to make pies when I was younger, she uses shortening in her pies , I do at times but I mostly use butter, I sometimes even add coconut oil…I am not afraid to experiment with pie crust or fillings for that matter. It’s all in the technique, once you get that down you will become a pie making expert! I share two different recipes on this post, both are great. You can try either or both and see which you like best. Hope you enjoy the tutorial!
A tip I will share with you is when you are making dough for pie or any baked goods you may notice at times the dough is a bit dry, I find different brands of flour make a difference…not sure why. For example, I will make this dough using 2 tablespoons of liquid and it will turn out perfect, and other times when I am using a different brand of flour I need to use more liquid, so keep that in mind, if it’s too dry just sprinkle some milk until the dough forms and is no longer dry.
For the pie crust with shortening and butter:
- 3 tbsp cold butter cut into small squares
- 3 tbsp shortening
- 1 cup flour
- 2-3 tbsp cold water
- dash of salt
With your hand or fork or a pastry cutter used for making pie dough.
Break up the butter, shortening with flour (add the dash of salt) until it gets crumbly, butter and shortening have blended well with the flour. Add water, work into dough. Take a piece of wax paper, flour the surface of it and roll dough big enough to cover pan shape.
Flour the dough, fold over, sprinkle flour again and fold over again. Place in pie pan, and unfold, it’s just a tip, it’s easy to get the pie crust into the pan.
Add filling to pie crust
For the crust with only butter:
- 6 tbsp cold butter
- 1 cup flour
- dash of salt
- 2 tbsp buttermilk
Add the salt to the flour, and break up the butter with the flour until it becomes crumbly with a fork, pastry cutter or your hands. Add in the buttermilk and start to knead to form dough. Place two sheets of wax paper on the counter top and flour generously. Place the dough in the center, have flour on hand, start to roll out. Lightly flour the rolled out dough, fold over and fold over again and unfold in the pie crust as seen in the photos below.
[…] can check this link out, for another pie crust recipe and see the steps I use to make the dough http://momwhats4dinner.com/pie-crust/ For more pics of my pie you can check out the FB fan page link! […]