Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Perfect Pie Crust (Savory or Sweet)

This crust truly lives up to it's name. Easy to make, and portions great into freezer friendly crusts for future. If you're going to make a pie crust, why not have some left over to make a future pie faster and easier to whip up? Make life easy on yourself.

I suppose, if it's a perfect crust, it also needs to taste great, right? It does. I've used it on both sweet (apple and pumpkin) pies, as well as savory pies (pot pie and quiche). They all tasted delicious!

The only trick I found, is giving yourself enough time to dethaw the crust, if you are using a frozen portion. Fresh is obviously no problem.

If using a frozen portion: Simply unwrap all but one of the saran wrap layers and lay it out on your counter to dethaw for approximately 20 minutes. If it's too hard, it will crack and be difficult to work with. It doesn't have to be completely thaw though, as it will still be malleable and small cracks can be pinched back together.

I got 3 crusts from the recipe, but should have been able to make 4. The crusts were a little thick. Tammy says you can get 6 (3 pies, with tops), but I don't see that. You'd have to roll really thin.

It's great if you are hosting a party where you need multiple crusts for your dishes. For example, you're hosting wedding shower and wanting to serve a couple quiches and a strawberry pie for dessert. Or you are making a quiche for Christmas morning, and an apple pie for Christmas dessert. Or, you're making a quiche, and want to make life easy on yourself down the road, next time you're making a pie or quiche. You wont regret using this crust.



Perfect Pie Crust

from Tammy's Recipes

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup butter or shortening
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 egg
1/2 cup cold water


In a mixing bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar. Cut in butter until pea-sized lumps remain. In a separate bowl, beat vinegar, egg, and water. Add to flour/butter mixture and stir/mix just enough to make a dough. Mixture will be sticky still. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. (I usually refrigerate for an hour or more). Roll into shape (on floured surface) and use with fruit, pumpkin, or any pie requiring an unbaked crust. For pies requiring a pre-baked crust, bake at 425 degrees until slightly browned.

This recipe will make three medium-thickness 9-inch pie crusts (including tops). If you like a thicker crust, it will do 2 pies with tops. If you roll really thin, you can get 4!

Dough can be refrigerated up to three days or frozen until ready to use.

Delicious sweet pies you can make with this crust:
- Vegetable Pot Pie
- Blueberry Pie, from Andrea's Recipes
- Cindy Crawford's Strawberry Pie, from Not Quite Nigella
- Blackberry Pie, from Alpineberry

Guten appetit!

3 comments:

PerryBlog said...

So what did you fill your crust with?...

Laura said...

@ PerryBlog - The pictured crust was for a mushroom quiche. But I've used this crust for pumpkin and apple pies, plus for pot pies. It's delish and works great!

PerryBlog said...

I love mushrooms!