I will admit I use store bought crusts more often than not, but this pie crust recipe is hearty and delicious. It works good for both fruit and cream pies and for meat pot pies too. This recipe makes two pie crusts, so you can make one pie with a top crust, or two pies with a crumble topping. You must put this together with cold ingredients, otherwise it will be too sticky to work with. So you will need to plan ahead as your ingredients are going to spend a lot of time in the fridge in between steps.
Blend the butter and shortening and refrigerate until hard.
Put the flour and salt in a food processor bowl and chill this in the refrigerator too.
Add the flour and salt to the food processor and blend, then add the shortening and pulse just until coarse. Don’t over process, or the dough will heat up and be too soft.
Add the ice water slowly until it forms a ball. Divide the dough in half, and shape into two balls. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight to firm up.
When rolling out, don’t take the dough out of the fridge until you are absolutely ready to roll it. If you’re doing a bottom and a top crust, use the larger of the two dough balls for the bottom.
To roll this out easily, perfectly center the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap, then roll it out. Be sure to roll it a little bigger then the pie pan so that there is an edge to work with. Sometimes the plastic lies to creep under the edge of the dough making it hard to roll out – if this happens simply remove the top plastic, flour your hands and the dough, and press it out with your fingers.
When you are finished rolling it out take off the top piece of plastic wrap, put the pie pan upside down over the dough, then turn the whole thing (pie pan, dough, bottom plastic wrap) upside down. Lastly, press the dough into place in the pie pan and remove the second piece of plastic wrap.
Fill the pie then put the other pie crust on the top and pinch the edges together – flute the edge with your thumb and pointing finger of each hand combing together.
Cut a few slits in the top. Beat the egg white until foamy and brush over top. Sprinkle some sugar over the top if it’s a sweet pie.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes. Increase the temperature to 400 degrees F and bake 10-15 minutes more or until golden.
This recipe makes enough for two crusts (top and bottom, or two bottoms). If you want to use it for two bottoms then you can make a crumb topping for the pies.
