I have used this recipe for 25 plus years. I am the pie baker for our family and friends in Virginia. My only rival is my sister-in-law in Upstate New York who gave me this recipe. My husband's family revels in their history of fine pastry and the ultimate compliment was when he told me my pie was as good as his Grandmother's had been!!! This recipe has a lot to do with my success. I often use white shortening for savory pies and less sweet dessert pies. I've been known to replace a cup of white with whole wheat flour in the recipe for savory or more earthy dessert pies. Reduce sugar for savory crust and add for very sweet crust... I always roll it out after refrigerating. For Thanksgiving and Christmas I usually make 1 to 3 batches at a time and freeze in individual single crust size discs (waxed paper then inserted in individual plastic bags) to use as needed. 4 to 12 pies at Thanksgiving and 4 to 6 at Christmas time!!! Don't know how we could make it through the holidays without this one!
I made half recipe used whole egg. It is a very easy. A tip is to press it in the pan and then use cold wet hands to smooth it out. Anna
I make about 50 pies on Thanksgiving every year, for teachers at my school, (I'm the cafeteria manager) and I used this recipe for the crusts this year and they are just raving about how flaky the crust is and how delicious. Joan
I hate making pie crusts & end up buying those frozen ones. Well I tried this & it was great!! I used my food processor to mix everything & then chilled it overnight before pressing it out in the pans. Worked like a charm. The crust was very flaky. My husband was impressed!
I liked the reviews for this pie crust but was really unsure with the vinegar and the egg that it called for. This crust was very flavorful. My only substitutions were using rice wine vinegar but you couldn't taste it at all and I used 1/3 shortening 1/3 butter and 1/3 lard. I used this crust with the Peach-A-Berry pie filling recipe from this site. It turned out to be an amazing pie crust. It browns beautifully but not too much (I place on rack in lower 1/3 oven for this). My guests have raved about how flaky and light the crust is. One important note: I only use @ 1/4 cup of water sometimes a little more sometimes a little less... (I add a little at a time to get just the right pie crust dough consistency where it holds together when squeezed). This makes it very easy to work with. I've tried it with the recommended amount of water and with less and it just seems a lot easier to work with when using less. I use just a light dusting of flour when rolling the dough out and find that it doesn't stick at all.
This is an excellent recipe. I've made it twice in the past week and I've had great results always. When I used it for a sweet fruit pie I added some vanilla and a little extra sugar to the recipe. I only make 1/2 the amount (8 servings) and I have enough dough for 2 crusts. Even though the recipe doesn't suggest rolling the dough I roll it out. It's so easy to work with it only takes 2 minutes.
I just threw away all the pie crust recipes in my recipe file! This is the best pie crust recipe ever! I rolled it out between wax paper rather than using my hands. Thank you for sharing!
This pie crust is the easiest to work with I have ever found. The egg and vinegar (not standard pie crust ingredients) make it more stable during the rolling out and transferring to a pie plate phase. The taste is great and the crust is flaky.
This pie crust rocks. First pie crust I've ever made and my wife couldn't stop eating pie.: ) I did substitute 4 sticks of butter as I had no shortening and then another half cup of flour so it would have better consistency.
Too much fat and too much liquid made for a heavy greasy unworkable dough. Even adding the liquid carefully was not enough to make up for too much shortening. Lesson learned - I didn't read the recipe carefully - and should have.
