Mom's Pie Crust

(from the kitchen of Evelyn McGhee)

3 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. salt
1-1/3 cups shortening
1 egg, well-beaten
3-5 Tbl. ice water
1 Tbl. white vinegar

Sift together flour and salt. Cut shortening into flour with a pastry cutter until it has the texture of coarse crumbs. Combine egg, water, and vinegar (use only 3 tablespoons of water at first, and add the rest later only if you need it to make the dough hold together). Pour into flour mixture all at once. Blend with a spoon just until flour is all moistened. Gather into a ball and roll out on waxed paper. To place in pie plate, lift waxed paper and peel off when crust is in place. Makes one double (top and bottom) crust or two single (bottom) crusts.

Some of the secrets to light, flaky, tender pie crusts are:

• have the ingredients cool or chilled when you start; chill the dough when you aren't working with it (before you roll it out, after it's in the pie plate and before baking)
• work quickly, and handle the dough as little as possible; avoid over-blending or re-rolling it. The idea is to have little bits of unblended shortening sandwiched between layers of pastry when you roll out the dough--that's what creates the flaky texture when it cooks.

 

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