Perfect Pie Crust

I wish I could express how flakey and delicious this pie crust is and there is no picture that can capture how delightful this crust is in your mouth, but here is a picture of the pie crust being used for my pumpkin pie.


I've never made good pie crust...I don't understand baking very well. So I did what any smart cook would do, I asked my friends for help :) My friend Sarah really came through for me on this one! She shared this recipe from The New Best Recipes.


Enough for double crust

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 T sugar
1/2 cup shortening, chilled
12 T cold unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces
6-8 T ice water
(I put everything in the freezer for about 40 minutes, including the flour)

In food processor: flour salt sugar, until combined.

Add Shortening. Process until like coarse sand. (10 seconds) scatter butter over mixture. Cut the butter in until pale yellow and coarse crumbs. (No bits larger than small pea - 10, 1 second pulses).

Put in med bowl. Sprinkle 6 T water over mixture. Fold in with rubber spatula. Press down on dough with spat until the dough sticks together. Add up to 2 T water as needed.

Divide dough into balls and flatten into 4 in disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour up to 2 days.

The key I found to all of this is COLD everything.

I used powder sugar instead of granulated sugar and after rolling out the dough and putting in the pie plate, I put the crust in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes before baking. This crust turned out beautiful! It was flakey and buttery and just delicious.