Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Chop in chilled Cottolene with a knife, reserving 1½ tablespoons.
Add just enough ice water to form a soft dough, mixing it in with a knife.
Laminate and shape
Roll out the dough into a thin sheet.
Spread lightly with remaining Cottolene.
Roll the sheet up like a jelly roll.
Cut the roll into two pieces, one larger than the other.
Chill the rolls.
Stand the rolls on end.
Press down with your hand.
Roll into a circular piece to fit the pie pan.
Use the larger piece for the top crust.
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.
- Cottolene
- Shortening that stays solid in pieces, creating flaky layers and tenderness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas to lift the crust and keep it light.
- Ice water
- Moistens the flour just enough to bind a dough without developing toughness.
The step that matters
Chop in chilled Cottolene with a knife. Fat should stay in small, cold, separate pieces. As the crust bakes, these pieces melt and leave gaps, producing flaky layers; if the fat warms or is overworked into the flour, the crust turns mealy or 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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