Pie Crust Recipe - How to Make Pie Crust

Time is running out and you have got a hectic schedule, still interested in cooking and satisfying your tantalizing buds, Oh! Got stuck? No Problem! Making of Pie Crust had never been so easy. Well, your nearby supermarkets may be having most frozen pie tins but you know that taste is petty industrial. So if you opt for making your own pie crust then there are so many methods open for you. If you want to go through cookbook then you will find that everyone has got their own favorite. All butter, vegetable oil, all shortening, lard...the list goes around. Well, I have found some easy preparations to make your culinary journey so pleasant and without any big skills involved. Let us try...

1. All Butter Crust for Sweet and Savory Pies

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra flour for rolling, 16 tablespoons chilled butter in form of small cubes, 1 teaspoon sugar, 3 to 6 tablespoons of ice-cold water and salt according to your taste.

Preparation
At first, let us start cutting the lump of butter in to small cubes (around ½ inch size). After making these small cubes we have to keep them in freezer for a shorter duration of 20 min. so that they will get solidified and perfectly chilled.

Now let us go for the dough. Mix homogeneously flour, salt, sugar, and pulse with help of food processor. Add butter and pulse in a ratio 6: 8. Mix it well till it resembles something like our coarse meal. Check the size of butter pieces, a pea size is preferable. Now start adding water gradually and slowly so that it begins to clump together. Check the crumbliness of dough. It's very easy. Just pinch some of the dough and see whether it holds together or not.

Now remove the formed dough carefully from the food processor and allow it to get settled on a clean surface. Shape the dough in two discs with a care such that they should not be over kneaded. If you have followed the correct procedure then still you will be able to see small bits of butter. This butter pieces will help your crust to be flaky. Now put your discs in refrigerator for another 1 hour after wrapping them in plastic.

After 1 hour remove one of the discs from refrigerator sprinkle some flour on top of the disc, roll out the dough with a rolling spin by using metals spatula. It should not stick the surface below but if at all this thing happened then sprinkles some more flour to avoid the dough from sticking. Gently fold the dough and press down to the line the pie dish with the dough. Start filling to the pie.

When you are ready, take the second disk of dough as the before one, turn it over on the top of the filling and pinch the top and bottom of dough together firmly. Take out the excess of dough; fold it with the edge of the pan using thumb. Score the top of the pie with long cuts sufficient for the steam from the cooking pie can escape.

2. All Butter Crust with Almonds

Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour, plus extra flour for rolling, ½ cup of almond flour or finely ground blanched almonds, 16 tablespoons chilled butter in form of small cubes, 1 heaping teaspoon brown sugar, 3 to 6 ice-cold water and salt according to your taste.

Preparation
Preparation is same as the All Butter Crust for Sweet and Savory Pies only difference is, you have to include ground almonds, salt and sugar.

3. To Pre-Bake a Pie Crust

If you are going for pre-baked crust then follow all the stepsas above till the time of filling. If you are only doing bottom crust then you have to make only half recipe. The most important aspect of this recipe is freezing the crust for 30 min. When it is chilled sufficiently, line it with wax paper or aluminum foil, fill at least 2/3 with dry beans, rice. Bake with stainless steel pie weights for another 20 min. after baking allow it to cool before the pie weights taken off. Again bake for approximately 10 min, the crust will become golden and then fill it.

4. Combination Butter and Shortening Crust

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, ¾ cup of chilled butter in form of small cubes, half a cup of all-vegetable shortening, 6 to 8 tablespoons of ice-cold water and salt to taste.

Preparation
Here first mix flour, salt and sugar in food processor with a steel blade. Then scatter the butter pieces over flour mix and coat the butter with a little flour. Cut butter into the flour mixture and keep adding shortenings at regular intervals. The butter bits should be like peas in the mixture resembling like to that of coarse cornmeal.

After this sprinkle ice water over the flour mixture and start pressing down the dough using a folding motion, until it gets stuck together. If required add more ice water. When the dough is ready divide it into 2 balls and prepare disk of it. Wrap it in a plastic and keep it in refrigerator for 30 to 40 min. before rolling.

When your dough is ready for rolling take it out of the refrigerator, sprinkle a little flour on it and roll the dough outwards from center. When the dough reaches the exact size, fold it in quarter shape, lift it and again place it at center. Now gently unfold. If you are making single crust pies then use kitchen scissors to trim it. Tuck the overhung underneath it. Crimple the edge of pie crust using tines of fork. Use a sharp knife to cut vents in to the top so that steam will escape through it. You can paint the top with an egg wash!

5. Egg Wash

Ingredients
1 tablespoons heavy cream, milk and 1 large egg yolk.

Preparation
Beat egg yolk with cream and paint the top of pie with pastry brush to get a nice finish.

Your dish is ready, so enjoy!