Tender and Tasty Pie Pastry

  • Yield: Yield: 2 (9-inch) crusts
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Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, bleached

3/4 cup cake flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 sticks butter, chilled and cubed (8 ounces/1 cup/ 1/2 pound)

3 tablespoons vegetable shortening*

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 egg yolk, beaten slightly

Directions

  1. Combine dry ingredients in a chilled large stainless steel bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives and incorporate the fat thoroughly into the flour to resemble a consistency of coarse meal. Add shortening, sour cream and lemon juice, mix well and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
  2. Grease and flour a 9-inch pie pan. Remove dough from refrigerator, divide mixture into 2 disks. Keep 1 disk in the refrigerator until ready for top crust. Roll dough out on a floured surface between waxed paper. Carefully transfer the bottom crust to the pie pan and trim the overhanging excess. Chill for 15 minutes to help set dough in the pan. Brush bottom with egg yolk to seal. Fill with your favorite fruit filling. Roll out remaining disk as you did for the bottom crust. Cover the pie with remaining dough. Seal and crimp the edge. Cut vents in the top crust.
  3. Bake in the bottom half of a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Cool thoroughly before cutting.
  4. *Variation: Substitute vegetable oil for shortening for a pat in the pan crust.

Let's Get Cooking!

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Beth C.

Okay, I don't usually bother reviewing, but this pie crust motivated me. I have a pie crust recipe that I inherited from my grandmother, and another that I actually received as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law, who claims to have received marriage proposals over her pie crust... and yet, I was still searching for something, and it turns out that this is the crust of my dreams. The texture is perfect and it has a richness and depth that seems to be lacking in other recipes. While I love to cook, I often screw up as many recipes as I get right, yet this has come out perfectly every time I have made it. It is perfection in a pie plate.<br /><br />Please don't tell my grandmother or mother-in-law.

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