How to Make Pie Crust

No matter how good a cook one is, almost everyone is intimidated by the thought of baking any pastry items. And at the same time we can buy most varieties of baked stuff from the local bakery so why to waste time baking something you are not sure. The truth however is the home-baked pastry items are much more yummy and nutritious than the ready made ones. If you have been wondering to make some desert for the special weekend night, then how about baking a fresh pie that just gives a treat to your tongue. You can very well do it with just a few tips.

The fact that most prefer to buy readymade pie crust is that getting that crumbly and flaky taste in homemade crust is always a challenge. And you don’t really need to be a super chef or invite your grandma to the kitchen to make such a curst. You can do it yourself to the utter surprise of your food critics if you just pay proper attention. So let’s get ready to prepare some homemade pie crust. For the purpose of this article, we would make a shortening pie crust.

Ingredients to cook

All purpose flour – 2 2/3 cups

Salt – half teaspoon
vegetable shortening – 1 cup
ice-cold water – 7 tablespoons
butter

Steps to cook

Take a large bowl and put flour and salt into it.
Take a pastry cutter and cut the shortening with it.
Add to flour and salt and you must make sure the dough looks like small pea sized balls.
Take a small bowl and pick about 6 table spoons of the dough. Add ice-cold water and blend well. You must not blend too well as then the dough would become tough and you would not get the right flaky crust. Remember that the bread dough is different from the pie crust dough so do not overwork on the dough.
Now mix the contents of the small bowl back into the large bowl and use the pastry cutter to cut. Use your hands and make a dough ball without kneading too much. Now break the ball into two parts. One you are going to use for the bottom holder and the other one for the top. Keep it aside to be spread.
Take a pastry board and spread some dry flour on it. Just use enough to make sure the dough doesn’t stick when you roll the crust.
Take a small ball of dough and use the board to spread it. Make sure it is about 1/8inches thick. You can use extra flour if the dough tends to stick to the board when you flip it.
Use a scrapper to remove it from the board and place the dough onto the pie plate.
Fill the filling into the pie and place some extra butter on the top.
Roll the other small ball you can make sure it is big enough to fit the bottom crust.
Use a pastry brush and moisten the edges of the bottom crust and place the top one. Use your fingers light to trim and join the edges. You need to roll the pie plate as you go along the sides.
Make a few cuts to let the steam vent. You can even put some more butter on top of the curst.