Simple Flakey Pie Crust

As taught to me by my Grandmother.

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Yields: 2 8-9" pie crusts

Ingredients

• 2  cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 2⁄3 cup shortening
• 1  tablespoon shortening
• 2 -4  tablespoons cold water

Directions

1. Measure two “fluffy” cups of flour into a bowl. (That means you should shake or spoon the flour into the cup rather than digging the cup into the flour, cause you end up with a bit less flour. Or you could sift the flour…. but I think that is too much trouble!).
2. Sprinkle a rounded teaspoon of salt over the flour.
3. Cut-in 1/3 of a cup of shortening plus an extra dollop – about one tablespoon, until the flour is the texture of cornmeal; then cut-in an additional 1/3 cup of shortening. (When I learned this recipe from our Grandma, she used two knives to cut-in the shortening. I use a pastry blender!).
4. Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons of icy cold water over the flour mixture, and then mix it in with a fork. Mix in a third tablespoon of cold water and decide if you can shape the dough into a ball. If the dough does not want to stay in the ball shape, add one more tablespoon of the cold water. (The cold helps make steam in the crust as it is baking; the less water you use, the more flaky the crust, so I try to use three tablespoons. However, that is determined by how much flour and shortening is in the batch!)
5. Form dough into 2 equal balls of dough. (I like to "flatten" the dough ball so that I can easily roll it out.).
6. Flour the surfaces of the counter and the rolling pin. Roll 1 ball of dough out to about a six inch circle that you can lift up with your hands, pick up dough and sprinkle more flour on your counter, then flip the crust over and continue to roll it out to the size of your pie plate. The less flour you use, the flakier the crust…. But you need to keep the rolling pin floured and the crust from sticking to it! I loosen the dough from the counter with a flat spatula, slide my hands under the crust and transfer it to the pie plate.
7. Trim the dough to 1/2 an inch over the pie plate edge. Roll edges under and crimp together. Prick the crust with fork tines if it is going to be cooked without a filling. Cook in a 400 degree oven till lightly browned, approximately 10 minutes. Fill cooked crust as desired.
8. OR.
9. If using this recipe as a double pie crust, fill unbaked pie crust as desired, roll out the second crust and place on top of the filling. Trim the edges to 1/2 an inch over the pie plate, roll top and bottom dough edges together and crimp. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes, or until filling is cooked.