I love to cook and I love to bake; however I used to dislike making pies because I hated the mess of making a pie crust and I hated to pay a premium price for frozen pie crust dough. Flour would be sprinkled everywhere and I hated cleaning up the doughy mess afterwards off my counter. Then I found a method that works quite well as far as making a mess; and it still tastes great.
If you carefully follow these instructions you too will be able to create an almost mess free pie crust that is much cheaper and better tasting than the frozen pie crust you purchase in stores.
Here is a list of ingredients:
1 ½ cups of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons reduced fat buttermilk (no substitutes)
more all purpose flour as needed
Get your pie pan, it should either be a standard nine inch or a deep dish pan. The pan won’t need to be sprayed with cooking spray , this pie crust recipe won’t stick very much to your cook ware.
Place the 1 ½ cup all purpose flour into the pan. Then follow it with the tablespoon sugar. The 1 teaspoon salt should be added next. Mix the dry ingredients together with a fork or clean hands. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Pour the ½ cup vegetable oil in the center of the well. Follow the oil with the 2 tablespoons reduced fat buttermilk. You can use regular two percent milk in this recipe but you won’t get nearly the superior result that you would with real buttermilk. The buttermilk is what will make your pie crust flaky.
If you try buttermilk just once I promise you won’t want to cook without it. I use buttermilk in everything from bake goods to my mashed potatoes all with excellent results.
Have a cup or so of extra flour at the ready and a tablespoon measure and set it aside. Mix the ingredients together with clean hands in your pie pan. Feel the texture of the pie crust mixture, it may be more liquid than dough just yet.
The pie crust dough will feel different every time you make this recipe. The key is to add from the additional flour set aside one tablespoon at a time until you get a nice, pliable ball of pie crust dough that isn’t sticky. You’ll know when you have it just right after you’ve made this pie crust recipe a few times. Pat the dough down into the pan Bake the pie crust in a 425 degree oven for twelve to seventeen minutes or to the specifications of the pie recipe you are using.
If you want a double pie crust recipe, don’t worry the ingredients can be doubled, then when you have the dough mixture ready, take half of it out of the pan. Pat the dough in the pie crust pan down to create the bottom crust. Place the remainder of the pie crust dough between two sheets of wax paper. Roll it with a rolling pin over the wax paper until it is big enough to cover the top of your pie and set it aside. Brush the bottom crust of your pie crust dough with a little milk using a pastry brush to keep the filling from making it soggy during baking. Place the filling in the pie crust pan on top of the dough. Place the reserved rolled out dough on top of the filling and press the upper and lower crust edges together. Brush the top of the pie crust with some egg white to make it shiny. Slice two small holes in the top of the pie crust with a sharp knife to allow steam to escape from the pie and bake in a 425 degree oven for twelve to seventeen minutes or to the specifications of the pie recipe you are using.
This pie crust recipe works well for both dessert pies and pot pies. I have tried many pie crust recipes, including one’s that include lard in their list of ingredients. No other pie crust has worked as well for me as far as taste, reliability, and ease of cleaning up the mess. Just try this pie crust recipe once and I promise you, people will think you are a master baker. I hope you have the same luck in your home with this pie crust recipe.
