The Search for the Perfect Pie Crust Recipe has ended!!!

Last holiday, my husband made my favorite, Lemon Chess Pie, and went as far as making the pie crust.  It was pretty good for the first time but it was a little dry so I decided to find another recipe and searched my saved recipes.  The one that I decided to pull up was the one from Pioneer Woman.  If you want to check out her site with details steps and pictures, click here.

It was really easy to make and we had all of the ingredients in the house.  There is a reason why I like to make the crusts because you know exactly what you are getting and it is super frugal using ingredients that you already have around.  My mom said that she would go to the store and buy the crusts because she didn't want to bother.  We compromised, my husband made the crust and we made the pies.

Here is the process that we did with way too many cooks in the kitchen watching the process.  My husband mixed the dry ingredients with my mom throwing most of the things in to the bowl.  I grabbed the pastry blender and shoved it in the bowl.

We were ready to add the fats which I grabbed out of the fridge and cupboard and my mom put them into the bowl while my husband mixed.

I was a little worried that it wasn't going to come together because it looked a lot like flour and nothing like the pictures on the Pioneer Woman website.

I measured the water, my mom added it in and my husband mixed the dough.  He had to get his hands in there in order to pull it together.

My husband cut the dough in half because it was going to make two pie crusts- one for the pumpkin pie and one for the chocolate pie.  Here is what half of the dough looked like.

My mom brought out the pastry mat to roll out the dough which we had put in the refrigerator to stay cold before we were ready to work with it.  She got it in the pie plate with an amazing flip (which I always manage to mess up).  Then crimped the edge with her fingers.

 We made two pies in the two crusts and here was the second crust.  My mom used the fork to make the edge instead (and that wasn't my doing to show you both but rather, I think that she was tired by the second crust.  Feel free to make the edge whichever way you prefer.

Both were amazing light and flaky and made the pies taste great so we are going to be using this recipe again next time.  I hope that you try it for your next pie crust.  If you can't imagine making a pie crust, I promise that it is much easier then you think and this is a great recipe to try your hand at.  Hope you enjoy!!

My biggest hint would be to use the pie crust protector while baking so that the crust doesn't burn and you can enjoy the flaky goodness.  It helps the crust keep the light colored crust while cooking and not burning.

I hope that you try this crust and stay tuned for the two pie recipes that we made with these great crusts.

Two 9 inch Pie Crust

For a nine inch, two crust pie:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour (separated)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon sugar (for a dessert pie. Omit sugar for a savory pie.)
¾ cup cold butter or margarine, cut into chunks
¼ cup shortening, cut into chunks
¼ cup cold water

Mix the 2 cups of the flour, salt and sugar together lightly in a mixing bowl or in the bowl of a food processor.  Add the butter and shortening chunks and cut into the flour using a pastry cutter or by pulsing the food processor (if you don't have either then try two forks). The mixture should look like large crumbs and begin to cling together in clumps. Add the remaining ½ cup of flour and mix lightly or pulse the processor two or three times. Sprinkle the water over the dough and with hands or a wooden spoon mix in until dough holds together.Cut the dough into two pieces and refrigerate until you are ready to use.  Flour surface and roll out one pie crust and place in pie plate.  Cut to fit into pan and crimp the sides of the crust with fingers or fork.  Follow directions for the pie to use uncooked or cooked crust.