Perfect Oil Pastry

Po Valley Indian's Note:

This is an oil pastry that really "works." It's easy, tasty and cholesterol free...and flaky. Pay attention to the detailed technique...and it will turn out perfect!

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6-8

Yield: 2.0 crusts

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 dash salt
• ½ cup vegetable oil (corn is the tastiest)
• 5 tablespoons cold tap water (EXACTLY 5!)

Directions:

1. Measure the flour carefully and put it in a medium-sized bowl. Add the dash of salt and stir it with a fork.
2. Pour the oil in and stir and "cut" it with a fork until you've got clumps varying between pea-sized and lima bean-sized.
3. Distribute the cold water over the mixture and stir and mash with the fork just until it all balls together.
4. Wipe your countertop with a damp cloth and spread a piece of wax paper on it. The paper should not slide -- if it does, dampen the counter a LITTLE more.
5. Form a little more than half of the dough into a disk and place it on the wax paper. Cover it with another piece of wax paper.
6. Roll the dough with a rolling pin from the center out in all directions, keeping it as circular as possible.
7. Periodically do the following:.
8. peel off the top piece of wax paper, then lay it gently back on top of the crust.
9. using the bottom piece to lift it, turn the crust over, peel off that piece of wax paper, lay it back down again and continue rolling.
10. Continue the peel-replace-flip-peel-replace technique until your crust is about two inches bigger than your pie pan. IMPORTANT: Peel-replace-flip-peel -- then use the bottom piece of paper to lift the crust and place it over your pie pan. Gently peel off the wax paper.
11. Use the same technique to roll the top crust.
12. As you prefer, you can leave the top crust whole, cut it into strips for lattice, or whatever.
13. OPTIONAL: Brush the top crust with milk and/or sprinkle it with sugar.
14. Bake according to your pie directions.
15. BON APPETIT!

Reviews

[lilleskat]

I don't plan on using vegetable shortening...ever....so had to find something else for the pumpkin pies. I mixed up one batch, used only a little over 3 T of water and it was on the verge of too wet. I rolled two single crust 9 inch pies from this recipe for my pumpkin pies, then put together another batch (little less water) and made an apple pie with lattice. Worked great, my family loved the pies. They were flaky and tender, and no trans fats! I'm thinking quiche next......

[Chef EK]

A great quick & easy pastry! I tried it for the 1st time last night, having never made pastry myself before and it was a success. As someone said earlier, I'm not buying pastry from the store again!

[canthelpmyself]

Fabulous. I thought this was great. The texture was light and very flaky. I used white spelt flour, olive oil and added 1 tbsp of onion powder, 2 tsp of paprika and pepper. I havn't had a lot of experience with pastry but it was very very simple to make and work with for the vegie rolls I made. Next time I may try sunflower and olive because the olive oil was a very overpowering. Thank you for posting. I will use the again