Directions

1. Measure out all ingredients and refrigerate for at least an hour before starting
2. I use a food processor to incorporate my dough. I add the cold flour with the pinch of salt to the processor and then I add the cubed butter and cold shortening.
3. I blitz it for a few seconds until it resembles pea sized crumbles into the flour or smaller.
4. I add the water drizzling it into the top of the processor and the dough should just start to come together. It should still be dry enough to crumble again but hold together when pressed.
5. Transfer dough to saran wrap or cling film. Bring it into a ball and wrap tightly in the plastic and then press it flat (about 1/2 to 1 inch thick) so when you pull it out to use it will be ready to roll out.
6. Refrigerate it for about an hour.
7. Once the dough is chilled then you can roll it out and shape it into your pie pan. I ALWAYS refrigerate it again after it is in the pan because there will be some shrinking as the dough settles from being rolled out and stretched.
8. Now, depending on what you are doing with the pie crust you will either bake it ahead (for pies like cream pies or chiffon pies) or bake it with the filling (for apple, custard or other fruit pies). Most pie recipes will tell you what you need to do for this.


Tips: If you prebake your pie crust you will need to “dock” it which means to simply take a fork and poke little holes all over the bottom to keep it from bubbling up. I tend to dock and then “blind bake” it. Blind baking is when you put parchment paper in the crust and then fill it with rice or beans to hold the crust down so that it won’t bubble either. If you are blind baking you will need to remove the rice or beans toward the end of baking and continue to cook it to brown it. You want a golden brown crust. You can usually accomplish this in about 20- 30 minutes at 400 degrees or just watch it to see when it has the desired color. Always cool it before adding fillings if the recipe calls for a prebaked crust. For a fruit or custard pie you would simply put filling into the unbaked pie crust and bake as the instructions for that pie call for. I always let my pies cool to room temperature before serving. Most pies can and should be refrigerated for overnight storage. Restaurants typically heat fruit pie slices in the microwave before serving a la mode. Feel free to do the same.