Pie

I love pie. I could eat pie every single day. I never get tired of it.

This is how I make pie crust. This will make enough crust for one 9 inch two-crust pie, or two one-crust pies.

I sometimes use unsalted butter for the shortening and other times I use crisco, or I use a combination of the two. Using vegetable shortening makes the crust flakier. Lard also works well, but I never have lard; I don't know where to buy it. When using butter, make sure it is cold. If you are not used to making crust, I recommend using all vegetable shortening, as I think it is easier to work with than butter. Typically I use 6 tbsp. of crisco to 2 tbsp. of butter.

Cut the shortening into small chunks and add it to the flour and salt. Work it into the flour as quickly as possible; try to do it in only a minute or so. Use your fingertips; do not knead the dough. The flour and shortening should be pretty well mixed, like coarse meal, but having some lumps of shortening is fine (this will improve the texture of the crust).

Next, add the water, taking care not to add too much. I didn't put an amount of water in the ingredient list because it can vary a lot. You should add just enough that you get the shortening and flour mixture to hang together but not enough to make the dough very sticky. If you err on the side of stickiness, you can work in a little more flour as you roll it out; however, if you add too much water, the crust will get hard. It is important not to work the dough too much, so you should try to do this as quickly as possible as well.

Break the dough into two pieces (for a two-crust pie), wrap them up, and put them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Roll them out on a floured counter. If I am making a dessert pie, I put a thin layer of cream on the top and sprinkle it with sugar before baking it -- this makes the top get brown and crispy. A little cream and salt is ok for other pies but sometimes I just leave it as it is.

There are so many uses for pie crust -- in addition to dessert pies, I often make quiches, and I also make pot pie from time to time. I've cut the crust into squares, put filling in them and baked them (like turnovers), and sometimes I just roll out the dough, slice it into strips, put cinnamon and sugar on it and bake it (this is an excellent use for any crust you have left over from making a pie and I usually make a little extra dough just for this purpose).

Here is a recipe for a pistachio pie that I created.

Here is something that I recently tried. While I do not consider it a total success, it was acceptable for a first try at something like this (food a vegan could eat without unacceptable substitutions), and could be improved enough to be made really good: crust with maple syrup and almonds