The ingredients you'll need are:

• 4 c. flour

• 1 3/4 c. shortening (I use Crisco)

• 2 tsp. salt

• 2 tsp. sugar

• 1/2 c. cold water

• 2 eggs

• 2 tsp. cider vinegar

The short version of the procedure is:

Mix the flour, salt and sugar together. Then cut in shortening until pea-sized. Lightly beat together the eggs, water and vinegar. Add the liquid to the flour mixture a little at a time and mix lightly with a fork just until it is wet and will form a ball. Form into a ball, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Long version for beginners:

Now for those of you who haven't made pie crust before or it has given you trouble let's go into a more detailed version. 

First of all, the water should be cold. You may have wondered why a crust recipe always specifies cold water. It's because we want to keep the fat, either shortening or butter, solid so it will stay in pieces in the flour. 

Why? Because when you roll the dough out and the fat is still in solid pieces in the flour it will roll out into flat layers between the layers of flour which is what makes the crust flaky instead of crumbly. So it is very important to use cold water and to keep your hands out of it until you get ready to from the dough into a ball. 

I gave a crust recipe to a friend who likes to cook and is actually quite good at it...with most things. However, crust was new to him and being a man he likes to take shortcuts. The recipe called for butter. He messaged me the next day to tell me I gave him a bad recipe and said he ended up with a hard basketball. After questioning him about how exactly he make it I soon found out he had melted the butter instead of cutting it in cold! Needless to say that was the problem and we both had a good laugh after I explained why you can't melt the butter first.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that many people prefer lard for pie crust. I do have a recipe that calls for lard but I prefer Crisco® because I don't like the heavy, greasy taste you get with lard. But if you prefer lard you can substitute that for the fat in most crust recipes. But I always use Crisco® vegetable shortening. You can get cheaper vegetable shortening but there is a difference. On most ingredients I buy the cheapest brand so if I have a preference for a particular brand there is a reason and I won't compromise on it. However, it's your kitchen so let your conscience (and your budget) be your guide.

Now that we've gone through that let me tell you exactly how to do it. First of all I put the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. I toss it with a fork to get the salt and sugar distributed through the flour. 

Next I measure the shortening into the flour and use the pastry cutter to cut it into the flour. If you're not sure what it means to "cut the shortening in" it means to keep pushing the pastry cutter through the shortening and flour repeatedly to cut the shortening into smaller and smaller pieces. Each time you push it through drag it through the flour, dragging the flour up over the shortening with the cutter, so you get flour on the cutter and on top of the shortening to keep the shortening from sticking to it as much. Continue with this process until the shortening is in fairly small pieces, about the size of a pea.

NOTE: You can use a food processor to cut the shortening in if you have one. Just use the pulse and hit it briefly several times until you get the shortening cut down to pea sized. Just be careful not to over-mix it or you'll end up with something that resembles silly putty instead of the dry crumbly mixture you want. 

Then you're ready for the liquid. Just measure the cold water in measuring cup, add the eggs and vinegar and beat slightly, just until the ingredients are blended. Then I use a fork to toss the dry mixture as I pour the liquid mixture in so it's evenly moistened and I don't end up with a big lump of dry flour at the bottom of the bowl. By the time you get all of the liquid added you will have a nice wet dough that will easily form a ball. 

Then form the dough into a ball, wrap it with plastic wrap, waxed paper or foil and chill for about 30 minutes.

Chilling the dough will make it easier to handle and result in a flakier crust as it will get the shortening solid again after all the handling. You can also make the dough the night before you're doing to make the pies and just let it chill overnight. It will make the day you make the pies much easier.

Now...that was the easiest recipe for pie crust I could give you and I promise anyone can make that crust. It's flavorful, easy to handle and I promise it is fool-proof.

However, there are other methods for making crust so while we're talking about crust I'll include some of those. First there is the standard Crisco® pie crust recipe which is a very good one if you want just a basic shortening, salt, flour and water pie crust. It's pretty basic so there's not really much difference from one recipe to the other.

This should make a 10" deep dish two-crust pie or 2-10" deep dish single crust pies.

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