I really only cook one thing well. Fortunately, it's an apple pie and who in their right mind doesn't love apple pie? Even I love it and I am not a sweets person (some would even say I'm not a sweet person either but that's kind of a mean thing to say, don't you think?).
I have used the same pie crust for years...years, I tell you! My mother gave me the recipe and it involves white vinegar and eggs and refrigerating for hours and although it does come out deliciously well, it's also time-consuming and fraught with danger.
So imagine my huge, happy surprise when I found a very, very simple pie crust recipe in my old Betty Crocker cookbook, one my late grandmother gave me when I got married. I didn't have nearly the right ingredients for my mother's recipe so this one seemed a decent attempt. I had a couple of people taste test it for me (thanks to HH and Yooli who volunteered their taste buds) and it was declared a winner!
Here I am making the pie:
And what it looks like before it goes in:
And what it looks like when it's finished:
Flaky and light and so very yummy. I was so impressed with this recipe and I'll use it again today to make a second one for my Thanksgiving guests (since my testers polished off half of it last night! Guess that means it was pretty good!).
So here it is. Use it for a 2 crust pie and fill with apples or other fruit or maybe banana cream or chocolate pudding. The possibilities are endless!
2/3 cup plus 2T shortening (like Crisco but I used an organic kind)
1t salt
2C flour
5T cold water
Cut shortening into flour and salt until coarse and crumbly. Add water by T until dough pulls from sides and can be formed into a ball. Then evenly split into 2 balls, roll out, and voila, you have 2 crusts for a pie.
