Grandma's Foolproof Pie Crust Recipe or No-Roll Pie Crust Version

Holiday desserts are often pies, so I plan to do a series of pie recipes starting with the bottom of the pie.  My mother and grandmother were known for their yummy pies.  One of the reasons their pies were so good was their homemade rolled-out pie crust, which recipe is provided below.  My mom made her own crusts until she started getting lots of  grandchildren, then she had too much to do and switched to store-bought frozen pie shells.  These smaller shells forced Mom to experiment to make her pies in the thin aluminum pans.  Some fillings boiled over into the oven as they now had too much filling for one pie, now she had to make 2 smaller ones.  Also, the smaller versions were harder to fit her meringue onto correctly as the recipe could not completely cover the top of two pies.   

If you do not have a rolling pin, you may opt for the no-roll pie crust recipe in the bottom of this post instead.

Grandma's Foolproof Pie Crust

- Makes 2 double-crust pies or 4 single shells.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Crisco
1 egg
2 Tablespoons vinegar
5 Tablespoons water

Steps:

1. Sift into a big bowl the flour and salt. Cut in Crisco until mixture is crumbly.
2. Blend together in separate cup: egg beaten with a fork, vinegar, and water.
3. Add liquid to dough a little at a time. Mixing and pressing together until dough is moist enough to handle and hold together.
4. Dough may be chilled in the refrigerator before rolling out.  Divide into 4 parts for rolling into circles.
5. If baking shell to later fill with canned pie filling or for a cream pie, bake crust at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.  If baking with two crusts and raw fruit filling, bake at 375 for small pies or 400 for larger pies watching for browning time of 45-60 minutes depending on type and size of pie. 

Tips:

• Roll out each pie crust between parchment (or wax) paper so it does not stick to rolling pin or work surface.  You can make pie crusts in advance, leave them between the papers, and then store inside zip-lock bags for short-term in refrigerator or longer in freezer until ready to use.
• Watch video on 3 ways to create decorative pie crusts.
• Before baking the pie crust, instead of using pie weights (from Amazon) my mom would pierce the bottom of the crust with a fork to prevent it from rising unevenly during the baking process.  She started in the center of the crust and spiraled out to the edges and then one fow up the side nearest to bottom of pan.  She then crimped the edges with her fingers to make a ruffled crust before baking.

No Roll Pie Crust Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons milk

Steps:

1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt in mixing bowl with fork.
2. Add milk to oil and stir into flour mixture. with fork
3. Put the crust mixture into 9-inch pie plate and shape to fit pan. 
4. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes.