No fail pie crust recipe and tips

I was afraid of pie making for years.  First of all I am not a huge pie fan.  When it comes to sweets I much prefer fresh baked cookies to pies, cakes, and pastries.  My husband, however, grew up on pies.  After attempting to please him with my cooking when we first got married and always coming up short, I wasn’t about to try pies. 

It wasn’t until years later that I thought I should try to make pies for him since he really loves them.  I had heard so many failed crust stories that I was worried.  With fear and trembling I mixed my first pie crust, rolled it out, and placed it in the pie plate.  It all went well until I tried to flute the edges.  It wasn’t very pretty so I…crumbled it up to start over.  Now that’s where everything went wrong.  It wouldn’t roll out right.  Then I couldn’t get it off the wax paper.  Forget about making it pretty.  I had to start completely over!  This many years later I’m wondering if I had refrigerated it for a while if I could have rolled it back out again, but I’m not sure.  But if you’ve never made a pie, the less you handle the dough the better! 

Ingredients for one pie crust:
1 cup+ 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons cold water

Ingredients for Two-crust Pie:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cold water

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl.  I have always used cold tap water.  My sister says she puts water and ice in a glass and takes her tablespoons of water from that to make sure it’s really cold.  Either way it HAS to be COLD water.  

Without handling the dough at all, quickly mix with medal spoon just until ingredients are blended.  Don’t over mix. 

Place the dough between two sheets of wax paper.  I actually ran out of wax paper and used parchment paper on the bottom.  I have an awesome marble rolling pin that I got for Christmas one year.  It is perfect for rolling out pie crust and cookies, any thing that works better cold.  I think it works so much better than a wooden rolling pin for pie crust!  Roll the dough out to about 12 inches in diameter.  I usually just measure with my pie plate to where the dough looks like it’s big enough to cover the plate and have about 1/2 left over.  

Turn the dough over the pie plate wax paper and all.  Then gently peel the wax paper off.

Mold the dough so that it covers the entire inside of the pie plate folding under and fluting the edges as you work your way around the pie plate.  Oh how it used to make me angry when I would hear people say, “Just flute the edges.”  I have had a tough time learning how to make the edges look pretty, and I’m still not very good at it, but my pies actually do look fluted now.  So I would say don’t be discouraged if it’s not pretty the first time, just keep practicing.  

And this is the Double Sausage Quiche I made a couple of weeks ago! 

If just baking the pie crust without a filling, prick the crust and place into a preheated (Make sure it is preheated!) 450 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until light brown. 

For a two crust pie heat the oven to 425 degrees,  Make the recipe above and divide almost in half using the slightly larger for the bottom and the smaller for the top of the pie.  Bake as directed.  To prevent over browning you can use strips of foil to cover the edges, just remove about 15 minutes before baking is completed.  Pictured above is an old fashioned fresh Peach Pie. 

This pie crust has worked every time.  I’ve never had it fail on me.  It always turns our flaky.  My husband loves it and will not let me purchase a refrigerated pie crust when at all possible!  Now that the fear of pie making is gone, I really enjoy making pies, though I prefer eating quiche!  🙂