Traditional American Pie Crust Recipes

TRADITIONAL AMERICAN PIE CRUST RECIPE - (4.4/5)

Steps:

• 1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Cut or rub in the shortening or lard, until the fat is the size of small peas. 2. Cut in the cold butter, leaving the butter in pieces the size of your thumbnail. 3. Sprinkle the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, over the mixture, tossing the mixture together with fork as you go. Continue until the dough is just moist enough to hold together when pressed. 4. For a 2-crust pie, gather a little more than half of the dough and pat it into a disk; wrap in plastic and chill for an hour (the larger portion will be the bottom crust.) Do the same with the remaining dough for the top crust. If you're making two one-crust pies, divide the dough evenly, wrap and chill before rolling. 5. Roll the crust until it is about 1/8-inch-thick and about 2 inches larger than the diameter of the pie plate. This gives you enough to make a good high rim (single crust shell) or to match with the upper crust (double crust bottom). Fill and bake as your recipe directs. Tips from our bakers When the dough is almost moist enough to hold together, try pouring the shaggy mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper. Use a spray bottle to moisten the dry parts of the dough without waterlogging it. Then fold the dough over on itself, like a business letter. Repeat the process until all the dry bits of dough are evenly moistened. This will create lots of nice layers in the dough (click on the video to see this being done). After rolling out your crust and lining your pan, put it in the refrigerator until you're ready to fill and bake the pie: this will improve the flakiness and texture of the crust. Pie crusts can be made ahead and frozen for up to a month. To keep the bottom crust from getting soggy, try brushing it with egg white and chilling before adding the filling. You can also use melted butter to create a barrier between the fillings moisture and the crust. Lightly grease the pie plate with non-stick spray before putting in the bottom crust; this will make taking the slices out of the pan much easier later.

BEST EVER PIE CRUST

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball. Divide dough in half, and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
• Roll out dough on a floured counter. Don't over work it. Use as directed in pie recipe.

OLD-FASHIONED ALL-AMERICAN APPLE PIE

Steps:

• 1. Prepare the pie dough, divide half and roll out each half no more than 1/4 inch thick. Line a 9-inch pie pan with one. Keep lined pan and top crust chilled.
• 2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel and core the apples and slice them about 1/4 inch thick. Toss with sugar and cinnamon to taste and with the flour. Fill the pie with the apple slices, mounding them somewhat in the center. Dot with butter. Cover loosely with the top crust, using a little water to seal the crusts together. Crimp the edges. Using a fork or the tip of a knife, make several vents in the top crust.
• 3. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour or until golden brown. The smell will tell you when it is ready. Serve while still warm.

PERFECT BAKED PIE CRUST

Steps:

• Heat oven to 475ºF. Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary). Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into flattened round on lightly floured surface. Wrap flattened round of pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.Roll pastry, using floured rolling pin, into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of pie plate. Fold and roll pastry under, even with plate; flute as desired. Prick bottom and side of pastry thoroughly with fork. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown; cool on wire rack.

EASY PIE CRUST

Steps:

• To make the dough for the pie crust, mix 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 teaspoon each salt and sugar in a medium-size bowl. Cut 2 sticks chilled unsalted butter into pieces. With a pastry blender, cut in butter, working until mixture resembles coarse meal.
• Add 4 tablespoons ice water; work with hands until dough comes together. If dough is still crumbly, add more ice water a tablespoon at a time (up to 4 more tablespoons). Do not overwork.
• Divide dough in half, and flatten halves into disks. Wrap disks separately in plastic; refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• To form the pie shell, roll the dough on a floured surface into a 14-inch round. Wrap around rolling pin and carefully unroll over a 9-inch pie plate.
• Fit gently into bottom and side of plate. Use kitchen shears to trim dough to a 1-inch overhang; fold under, and seal to form a rim.
• Crimp rim with fingertips and knuckle. Repeat with remaining dough; wrap each with plastic, stack, and freeze.

ALL-AMERICAN PIE

Steps:

• Combine flour, sugar and salt in a food processor; pulse to combine. Add butter; pulse until crumbly. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Gradually add ice water, tossing with a fork until dough holds together when pressed. Divide dough in two, making one portion slightly larger. Shape each into a rectangle; wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight., For apple pie filling, in a large saucepan, combine apples, 2/3 cup apple juice, sugar, cinnamon and apple pie spice; bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir until apples soften, about 10 minutes. Combine cornstarch and remaining apple juice; add to saucepan. Return to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally., For cherry pie filling, in a large saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in cherry juice until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the cherries, cinnamon, nutmeg and almond extract. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally., For blueberry pie filling, in a large saucepan, combine 1 cup blueberries, water and butter; simmer for 4 minutes. Combine the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt; add to saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and remaining blueberries. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally., Preheat oven to 425°. For crust, on a lightly floured surface roll out larger portion of dough to a 17x12-inch rectangle. Transfer to a 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of pan. Line crust with a double thickness of foil. Fill with pie weights, dried beans or uncooked rice. Bake on a lower oven rack until edges are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove foil and weights; bake 6-8 minutes longer or until bottom is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack., Meanwhile, roll out remaining dough to a 15x10-inch rectangle. Using a pastry wheel and star cutouts of varying sizes, cut out stars and stripes for decorative topping of flag pie. Bake at 400° until golden brown, about 15 minutes for stripes and 8 minutes for stars. Cool on a wire rack., To assemble, place blueberry filling in 1/3 of crust; fill remaining portion of crust with "stripes" of cherry and apple fillings. Top pie with star and stripe cutouts.

TRADITIONAL MEAT PIE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Pie Crust: Mix flour and shortening. Add salt and cold water. Add all the cold water at once and mix delicately. Form a ball and refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Once dough is chilled, flour your worktop. Divide dough in half. Roll out 2 pie crusts. One should be slightly larger than the other, this will be your bottom crust.
• Meat Filling: Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the pork and onion and cook over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, stirring often. When pork is cooked remove fat from pan. Add grated potato, salt, pepper, and allspice, to taste. Stir well, and let mixture rest for 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter the bottom of 9-inch pie plate. Place the bottom crust in the pie plate and poke several holes in the crust with a fork. Make sure an ample amount of crust spills over the edges of the pie plate. Fill the crust with the meat mixture. Level with a spatula. Wet edges of bottom crust and place top crust over meat mixture. Press top crust onto meat mixture to eliminate any air holes. Beat together the egg and the milk to make an egg wash. Pinch the crust edges together and brush the top crust with the egg wash.
• Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue baking for 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
• Slice and serve hot or cold.

ALL-AMERICAN PIE CRUST

Steps:

• In the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the flour and salt, then add the vegetable shortening and butter. Process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.
• With the processor on pulse, add enough of the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough holds together without being sticky or crumbly. Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill until firm and the moisture has distributed evenly, about 30 minutes.
• Flour a clean work surface and a rolling pin. (If making a double crust pie or 2 pie shells, work with one disk at a time, keeping the second disk chilled.) Place a dough disk in the center of the floured surface. Starting in the center of the dough, roll to, but not over, the upper edge of the dough. Return to the center, and roll down to, but not over, the lower edge. Lift the dough, give it a quarter turn, and lay it on the work surface. Continue rolling, repeating the quarter turns, until you have a disk about 1/8 inch thick.
• Ease the pastry into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim 1 inch larger than the diameter of the pie plate; fold the overhanging pastry under itself along the rim of the plate. For a simple decorative edge, press the tines of a fork around the folded pastry. To make a fluted edge, using both your finger and thumb, pinch and crimp the folded dough. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
• To blind bake, see directions on page 64.