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Cheri's Place

Basic Crisco Pie Crust

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For the ingredients you'll need the following:

  • 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 1 cup CriscoŽ all-vegetable shortening

  • 7 to 8 tablespoons cold water

Spoon the flour into measuring cup. (Spooning the flour into the cup keeps the flour from packing down which would give you more flour than you wanted). Put the flour in a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Cut in the shortening using a pastry cutter until the little balls of shortening/flour are about pea-sized. Sprinkle with water a little bit at a time, tossing the mixture lightly with a fork until the dough will form ball. 

Divide dough in half to make 2 crusts (or a top and bottom crust). Form each half into a ball and flatten it a bit to make rolling easier. If you don't have a Pastry Cloth and Rolling Pin Cover Set image-1299407-10379236 (1x1 -- 50 bytes)you can roll the dough out between two layers of waxed paper to avoid all the flour mess. Be sure to damped the table or counter to help keep the waxed paper from moving around. Roll each ball out to an even thickness and a bit larger than your pie plate. Remember it has to go down in the plate, covering the sides and have enough left to make a pretty edge on top.

As for pretty edges they are very easy to do. You can use a fork to go around the edge pressing the tongs flat against the top edge and leaving a space between each fork imprint for an easy one.

Another one I've always done is to put one finger down on top of the crust, then put the first finger of the other hand down on the top leaving a space between. Then just use one thumb to push the dough in a bit between the two fingers. Work your way around the pie and you'll have a nice edge. There are many kinds of edgings you can do if you're artistic, some using a little leftover dough to make cutouts, etc. but we won't spend a lot of time on that right now.

If you're making a meringue or cream pie where the recipe calls for a single baked pie shell go ahead and decorate the edge the way you like. Then use a fork to poke holes all over the bottom and sides to keep the crust from bubbling up in the bottom and reduce shrinking. 

To prevent the crust from shrinking you can also put a layer of waxed paper in the bottom and fill it with dried beans or rice before baking. I have a jar of dried beans I use just for this purpose as they can be used over and over.

Then bake in a pre-heated 425°F oven for about 10-15 minutes until it's golden brown.

If you're making a double crust pie put the bottom crust in the pie plate and mold it to the sides, trimming off the edge but don't worry about a fancy edge yet. Then put the filling in and put the top crust on. You can either cut the top crust to about an inch or so bigger than the pie plate or put it on first and trim it off even with the pie edge. 

The next thing I do, especially if I'm making a fruit pie, is pinch the top and bottom crusts together around the edge rolling them over and mashing them down to make a good seal on the edge of the pie. After the crust is sealed all the way around you can make the fancy edge you prefer. 

Another thing to remember is if you're putting a juicy filling in the pie, like for a sour cream raisin, you can avoid a soggy crust by brushing the bottom crust with a little egg white and letting it air dry a bit before adding the filling and top crust. 

You also want to make sure your oven is pre-heated and ready for the pie before you put the filling in and finish the pie. You don't want the pie to set on the table waiting for the oven, with the bottom crust soaking up the juices.

I have another pie crust recipe I've used for a long time too. It's pretty much the same at the basic CriscoŽ recipe except it uses butter...not oleo...real butter. Oleo is usually made with some kind of oil and that doesn't do well in a crust.


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