Family Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing until the dough holds together.
Shape
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to fit your pie dish.
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the crust as its proteins and starches set when baked.
- Shortening
- Coats flour particles to keep the crust tender and flaky by limiting gluten development.
- Cold water
- Binds the flour and fat into a dough that holds together for rolling.
The step that matters
Cutting in the shortening. Fat should stay in small, cold pieces rather than fully blended into the flour. As the crust bakes, those pieces melt and leave pockets that make it flaky, while overworking develops gluten that makes it tough.
“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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