My mother used to make homemade pie crusts all the time. I’ve used her recipe many times, but it leaves something to be desired in terms of flavor. It’s fine, but bland. We’re busy people, and our kitchen is small, so these days I get lazy and prefer to buy store-made crusts. Recently, we discovered that the pie crusts we’ve been buying for the past year contain lard. (Blech.) (Also, see here for more information on store-made crusts.)
Since then we’ve experimented with different recipes. I’d still rather run to the Wedge and buy one, but Jeremy likes to use his elbow grease and make crusts at home. While the ones with cream cheese are tasty, it’s a pain in the ass to make and adds a bunch of extra fat and calories. What works best for us is to use part butter, part shortening, both chilled. Make sure your water is ice cold, and don’t over-mix. Also, I’ve found it’s easiest to roll the dough on a piece of parchment paper/wax paper, or in a pinch, a large plastic bag. Our table is sticky and I end up using a large spatula to remove it from the table, which rips and warps the crust and makes everyone sad.
Jeremy made this version for the veggie pie (just add par boiled or sauteed veggies and about a cup of roue sauce (thinner is best…thick roue just clumps up on the top, which is tasty, but the lower vegetables get lonely.)
Before baking:
After, in all of its golden glory:
This crust (a slightly sweetened version of the above) was made weeks later for a different fruit tart, and then lived in a Ziploc in the refrigerator for far too long. I rolled it out, covered it with some homemade lemon curd (a few tablespoons), sliced fresh peaches and drops/small clumps of ginger preserves. Fold over the edges, sprinkle with some sugar and a little butter and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the crust starts to brown and the peaches look soft.
Ooooooh, yes......
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