Grandma's Pie Crust

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Ingredients

  • 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 2/3 Cup Shortening
  • As needed (1-3 Tablespoons) Milk

Grandma’s Pie Crust

The absolute BEST pie crust for any filling whether sweet or savory!

Varies

Serves: 8-10

Medium

My grandma's classic, shortening based pie crust recipe. Easy to make and perfect for any type of pie both sweet and savory.

Pie Crust Ingredients

My grandma’s pie crust is absolutely the best and here’s the recipe for it. We always use it for dessert pies (most often pumpkin and pecan) but I think it’d work great for a savory, chicken pot pie as well! It’s a bit different than a lot of traditional pie crusts and uses shortening instead of butter, but it makes a great, flakey crust that is easier to bake to perfection every time.

Grandma’s recipe here is for a two pie crusts. This is perfect for making two pie crust bottoms, or one double crust pie (a pie with the crust on the bottom and the top). If you only need to make one pie, you can simply store the second disk of dough in the fridge for up to a week or for several months in the freezer. Just make sure it’s wrapped good and tight in cling wrap.

Now, for the filling. At the holidays, we always use these pie crusts for both pumpkin and pecan pies. For both of those pies we use very, very, very secret recipes that can only be found on the Libby’s pumpkin can and the Karo syrup bottle (for the pecan pie). BUT, there is an ingredient that Grandma ads to the pumpkin pie filling that I’ve sworn to keep secret. Mom doesn’t add it though, LOL!

I hope you give these pie crusts a try and if you do, please let me know in the comments below OR share a picture with me on Instagram (@bdhbakes)!

Steps:

  • Combine Flour and Salt 

    Sift together the flour and the salt in to a large bowl.

    Pie Crust Flour and Salt
  • Blend in the Shortening 

    Add the shortening to the large bowl and blend into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender (or fork). Keep mixing together until the mixture begins to create pea-sized clumps.

    Pie Crust Add Shortening
    Pie Crust Blend Dough
  • Add Milk 

    Add milk to the mixture and keep blending. Add the milk a tablespoonful at a time. You want the dough to just start to combine into big clumps and be able to just start to stick together when compressed.

    Pie Crust Dough Blended
  • Divide and Rest 

    Divide the dough into two equal sizes (if making the double batch). If you are making a pie crust with a top, you'll want to make one portion of dough slightly larger for the bottom and one slightly smaller for the top. Form the two portions of dough (or the one, if making a single crust) into round disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. (Note: chilling the dough is only a recommendation. Both mom and grandma seldom do this and their dough is perfect every time.)

    Pie Crust Divide Dough
  • Roll out the Dough 

    When you're ready to roll out the dough, lay a large sheet of wax paper down. Place the dough disk in the center (if doing a double crust pie, roll out the larger disk first as it will be used for the bottom). Place another sheet of wax paper on top of the disk and roll out the dough until it's about an inch or so larger than the pie dish.

    Pie Crust Dough Ball
    Pie Crust Covered in Wax Paper
    Pie Crust Rolled Out
  • Flip into Pie Dish 

    Remove the top piece of parchment paper. Next, place the pie dish, upside down, in the center of the rolled out dough. In one swift movement, reach under the bottom piece of wax paper and flip everything over and allow the pie crust to gently fall into the dish. Slowly and carefully, peel the bottom layer of wax paper (which should now be on top) away from the crust. Gently press the dough into the dish making sure it evenly covers the bottom and gets into the sides completely. If the crust tears or a whole opens, simple pinch it back together or use a scrap piece to patch it.

    Pie Crust Measure
    Pie Crust Flip
  • Form the Edge 

    This is showing how to bake a single crust pie. At this stage, you'll want to take the edges of the crust that is hanging over the sides and fold it up and under. After that, you can decorate the edge however you'd like. Grandma and mom usually use the classic style of index finger pressing on one side of the dough against the index finger and thumb on the other side. Go all around until the whole crust is decorated. Chill the crust again while you heat up your oven.

    Pie Crust Shape Edges
  • Fill and Bake! 

    Next, fill the crust with your filling of choice and then bake according to the directions of your filling recipe. This crust usually cooks perfectly BUT if you want to ensure you don't have a soggy bottom, preheat a cookie sheet in the oven and bake the pie directly on that. It will help the bottom of your pie crisp up. It's also great for catching any overflow of pie filling.

    Pie Crust Pour in Filling

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