Thursday, November 29, 2007

Grandma Ruth's Pie Crust


My grandma makes a great pie crust. Seriously, it tastes like pastry, It is that light and flaky! Recently I was talking to her about it and found out it's cheap and easy too. If you like to buy those pre-made crusts, you'll love this recipe. (well maybe you won't because maybe you're buying them because it's easy-Well this is easy too-I swear!) It makes 6-Count em', 6 crusts that can be frozen until you need them.

Pie Crust
5 Cups Flour ($.60)
2 1/2 cups of shortening-($2.39) I used the butter flavored one-Yeah I know, you don't want to use shortening, I didn't either. This is pie though, it's not a healthy food. (If you're using those pre-made shells you're eating something just as bad and probably worse-I found on another website that those crusts contain partially hydrogenated lard and wheat starch, rather than flour, is the main ingredient. It also contains sugar, rice flour, gums, preservatives, and food colors.)
pinch of salt
water
1 Egg
2 tsp vinegar
Mix water, egg and vinegar to make one cup.

Cream shortening and flour. Add liquid to combine. Divide into 6 patties (5 if you use a deep dish pie plate) It will feel a little greasy. Freeze. If you're going to use it right away, refrigerate for 30 min. You'll need a bunch of flour to roll this out. You can work this dough to death and it's very forgiving. I swear this is one of the easiest crusts I've ever made. Each crust ends up costing $.49! (I didn't account for the egg, vinegar or salt as you probably already have those!)

I used it for the first time yesterday to make an apple pie and it was delicious!

5 comments:

lightening said...

Thanks for that - sounds great. I'm not 100% sure what shortening is (don't know if we have it here or not). Any ideas whether this would work using butter instead of shortening? Maybe there's only 1 way to find out....

Christine said...

It would probably work. You could also use lard if you have that.

Teamcarbone said...

Sorry I've never made my own crust so how much water do you need? Also do you press the dough into patties or roll them into balls when freezing?

Christine said...

I don't know how much water! You use an egg, the vinegar and enough water to make it a cup. I started by putting the egg and the vinegar into the mixing cup and then added enough water to make 1 Cup.

Balls, Patties, whatever. I made patties because it seemed like I would need to do that with a ball anyway before rolling it out! They also stored better that way!

Teamcarbone said...

Perfect! Thanks I'll give it a try soon.