When I make pie, I usually use the recipe from Crisco. I think the recipe is about 150 years old and there's a reason it's still around. It's a good one. It's practically no fail. Of course, I've had trials and tribulations, but if you keep the materials cold, avoid handling the dough excessively, and just stick it in the fridge to come back to when you get frustrated, you'll get good results.
Because I had some Spectrum shortening, I figured I'd just go ahead and use it according to the recipe directions rather than going with Spectrum's suggestion of using it at room temperature. And instead of measuring it out BEFORE putting it in the fridge, I had a slight measuring problem but I adapted and overcame. It's like I'm the Navy SEAL of pie crusts.
Single Pie Crust
adapted from Classic Crisco Pie Crust
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c cold shortening
3 to 6 tbsp ice cold water
Yes, that's ice in my water.
Combine flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.
1/2 c cold shortening
3 to 6 tbsp ice cold water
Yes, that's ice in my water.
Combine flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.
Cut chilled shortening into pieces.
Now this is where I had my problem. I had chilled the entire tub of shortening in the fridge and then tried scooping it out. I should've measured the warm shortening, then chilled it. What ended up happening is I used the measuring cup to sort of chisel away at the hard shortening, eventually getting what I estimated was close to the appropriate amount. Bonus was that when transferring the shortening from the measuring cup to the bowl of flour was that the shards easily flaked out.
Cut chilled shortening into flour mixture using a pastry blender in an up and down chopping motion until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some small pea-sized pieces remaining.
I try to continue cutting the shortening into the flour until all the shortening pieces are about the same small size. Homogeneity, as much as possible, helps later.
Sprinkle two tablespoons of ice cold water over the flour mixture.
Using a fork, stir and draw flour from bottom of bowl to the top, distributing moisture evenly into flour. Press chunks down to bottom of bowl with fork.
Add water by the tablespoon, continuing the fork method described above after each addition, until dough is moist enough to hold together when pressed together.
Photo 1: 2 more tablespoons of water added; Photo 2: 1 more tablespoon added; Photo 3: how the dough looked when I guessed that (5 tbsp total) was enough water. You'll see in the third photo that the dough is doughy on the top but there is still some dry looking flour at the bottom of the bowl. That's normal.
Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.
Obviously, you don't want to grab the pile of flour from the bottom of the bowl, but some of the doughy stuff. If the doughy stuff holds together well (as in you don't have to be extremely gentle in handling the product) at this point, the floury stuff will be incorporated when you continue.
Shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball into 1/2-inch thick round disk between sheets of plastic wrap.
You might have to smoosh the dough blob around to pick up the floury bits, but it should work out so that you can make a ball. When flattening into a disk, the nicer and more uniform the edges are here, the nicer the edges will be when you roll the dough out. I had to do some work to get my rolled dough to have a nice edge since it started out pretty fragmented.
Wrap dough and chill for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.
Roll dough from center outward with steady pressure between two sheets of wax or parchment paper or plastic wrap into a circle 2-inches wider than pie plate.
Papers and wraps that come on a roll are typically about 11 or 12" wide. Just roll the dough so the edges don't exceed the paper/wrap boundaries and aim to make it round, you'll be good to go. Mine here was pretty big for a 9" pie. Another note: I opt to roll a little bit, flip the entire thing over, adjust the paper/wrap (you might find wrinkles), roll some more, flip, etc.
Transfer dough to pie plate by loosely rolling around rolling pin. Center the rolling pin over the pie plate, and then unroll, easing dough into pie plate.
Or, after doing the last of your rolling, flip the wrapped/papered dough over and peel off the paper/plastic. The dough will stick to the other sheet of paper/wrap. Invert the dough over the pie plate, adjust placement, then peel off the second sheet of paper/wrap. Gently ease the dough into the pie plate ensuring the bottom is well covered -- no gaps between dough and the curved part of the plate that turns upward.
Trim edges of dough leaving a 3/4-inch overhang. Fold edge under. Flute dough as desired.
The easiest way to flute, in my opinion is the simple angled pinch-between-thumb-and-side-of-forefinger method. (See photo #3 here for a visual. If you try that method and are hating life, you can easily scrap that plan and do their photo #1 method.)
Bake according to specific recipe directions.
Yes, that's a lot of information and I didn't capture every single detail. But I think that's about the jist of it. When it comes to crust it takes some practice; the first couple of times can be frustrating. While it's been many years since I last made crust, I gave my first crust a go more than 20 years ago and it drove me crazy. But I persisted. Hey, I like pie! This time it was much like riding a bike after a 5 year hiatus. It comes back to you.
If you take the time to chill the flattened ball for 30 minutes, plan about an hour to go from flour and salt to fluted crust. Oh, and it seems Spectrum is a good substitute for Crisco so far.
Cost:
- flour $0.29
- shortening: $1
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