Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Cut in the lard until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add the water gradually, mixing until the dough comes together.
Shape the crust
Roll out the dough on a floured surface and fit it into a pie pan.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the crust once mixed with liquid.
- Lard
- Cut into the flour to keep the crust tender and flaky by coating flour particles.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together.
The step that matters
Add the water gradually. Adding water slowly and mixing only until the dough comes together limits gluten development, which keeps the crust tender rather than tough. Too much water or overworking makes the dough sticky and hard.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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