Pie Crusts!

[Zazzy]

Post your favorite pie crusts - what works for you and what doesn't?

pâte sucrée

I should warn you that this will look very messy when you first put your hands in it. After a bit it will form a nice ball of dough. If you feel the dough is not wet enough or isn’t sticking together add a bit of egg white. If you overwork pâte sucrée it will be tough once it’s baked. So give it a rest period before and after rolling it.  You shouldn’t have any problem with this dough.

1 ½ - 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
½ cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small cubes

Sift the flour, sugar and salt onto a counter top or into a large bowl. Make a large well in the center and add the egg, egg yolk and butter. Using your fingers, blend the eggs and butter until they look like wet scramble eggs. Gradually draw in the flour and keep mushing the ingredients together to form soft clumps of dough and coarse crumbs. Gather the dough clumps and crumbs to form a ball. Using the heel of your hand, press down on the ball against the counter, scrape it up with a spatula, and repeat until it becomes a smooth yellow dough. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill for 20 to 30 minutes in the refrigerator before using.

When chilled roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, sprinkling it with flour as necessary so it doesn’t stick. To transfer to a 9 inch tartlet mold, lift one edge of the dough onto the rolling pin and gently roll the sheet of dough onto the rolling pin. Then simply unroll it over the tart pan, and press the dough into the mold. Run the rolling pin over the rim of the tart pan to cut off any excess dough.

To blind bake the tart: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line the tart shell with aluminum foil, filled with dried beans or pie weights and bake for 20 minutes, until the edges begin to color. Remove foil with weights and bake for 5 more minutes. Keep a close eye on the pastry because it can change from perfect to burned in a matter of a minute.

[Pina]

Pie Crust
Yields : 6 Single Pie Shells

5   cups     white flour
1   tsp        baking powder
1   tsp        salt
1   lb.         lard,cut into small pieces
1                egg,beaten
2   Tbsp      white vinegar
                 ice cold water

In a large bowl mix flour,baking powder and salt well.
With a pastry blender cut lard into flour until it resembles
very small peas.
To beaten egg in a glass measuring cup add 2 Tbsp white
vinegar,stir well.Add "ice cold water" to make 3/4 cup,stir.
Add egg mixture to the flour and lard,mix and knead just
until dough is nice and smooth.Cover with plastic wrap,let rest
about 10 - 15 minutes.Divide dough into 6 equal round pieces.
Flatten each round a bit and wrap each dough round in plastic
wrap.

Keep the dough round(s) you want to bake a pie with
refrigerated for about 1 hour.Then use with your favorite pie recipe.

Note :
This recipe freezes very well !

[Zazzy]

Thanks Pina!  I know how hard it can be to get recipes written down so someone else can follow them.  I've been writing up my mom's recipes for her and I know what she puts into things but quantities and such are beyond me!