pie crust

This recipe is for a single pie crust as I mostly use pie crust for pumpkin pie or tourtiere.

ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole wheat cake flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat bread flour
• 1/2 tsp lite salt
• 3 TB cold butter
• 3 TB cold lard
• 3-4 TB ice water

method

In bowl, mix together flours and salt.

Cut in butter and lard until the fat particles are pea-sized.

Add water a tablespoon at a time, and mix gently by hand, until it just forms a dough. Do not over-mix.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.

Roll dough out between two pieces of wax paper to form a "sandwich." Roll out a circle a couple inches larger than your pie pan.

Peel off top piece of wax paper, replace and invert the entire "sandwich." Peel off other piece of wax paper and place pie tin upside down on crust. Invert "sandwich" and pan to place crust in pan. NOTE: If wax paper doesn't peel off easily, put in freezer for a minute.

Gently adjust the crust in the pan, being careful not to stretch it. If stretched, it will shrink back while it bakes.

Trim crust to pan. Refrigerate until ready to bake, or for at least 10 minutes

To pre-bake a crust, poke it all over with a fork and bake it at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

To bake a two-crust pie, double recipe and break dough into half before chilling. After rolling out first crust as described and placing into pan, refrigerate while you roll out second crust in a second "sandwich" (you can reuse the same wax paper). Add pie filling to first crust, then remove the top piece of wax paper from second crust, replace, invert, remove other piece of wax paper, and invert on top of pie. Trim second crust to extend about 1/2 inch past edge of pie pan, fold the edges under, then crimp crusts together all the way around with a fork. Cut a couple vents in the top crust before baking.

tips and tricks

• You want an overall low-gluten content in the flours to get a tender crust, but some gluten is needed so the dough holds together. The proportions in this recipe seem ideal to me. If using store-bought flour, it'd be best to use 2/3 all-purpose flour and 1/3 cake flour.
• For the flakiest crust, you really do need to use animal-based shortening. Vegetable-based just doesn't work as well.
• For savory pies, use all lard, which produces a flakier crust.
• For kosher pies, use all butter, which produces a sweeter crust.
• Cut in fats using a pastry cutter, two butter knives, or by hand (simplest). If doing by hand, cut the shortening into bits before adding and then just mix until most of the bits have been smooshed in half. You need to be fast so your hands don't warm the dough.
• Handling the dough as little as possible is important. Over-mixing when you add the water results in a tough crust.
• Rolling between two sheets of wax paper or two pieces of muslin helps tremendously in getting the dough rolled thinly enough. I use a muslin pillowcase, which I cut open along the seams, then it just washes for the next time. If you make pie crust often, I recommend this as it works better and is a more frugal than using wax paper
• One of the tricks in making pie crust is that the dough should be very cold when rolling it out. So you use ice-water in the recipe and pre-chill the butter and lard. You can also chill the dough for several hours before rolling it out. If you're in a hurry and don't pre-chill and can't wait for the dough to chill, and then run across problems rolling it out, pop it in the freezer for a minute or two.
• The dough on top of the pie pan tends to overcook before the entire pie is ready. They sell pie shields for this. Alternatively, you can just cover with thin strips of aluminum foil.

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