Better homemade pie crust

Did anyone mention pie? What a wonderful topic to think about! Pie! Not only can the pie be sweet but also filling and nutritious. Now we’re cooking with gas!

We can also cook with electricity for those without gas. These days cooking with gas isn’t like it used to be. With this in mind, a preheated oven will be a part of the better homemade pie crust. Furthermore, extra prep time and patience will be additional ingredients.

This is one way to prepare a pie crust. The example here is for pie crust only. Pie filling will be a separate article. However, if the crust is good enough the filling won’t matter as much! 😉

Pie Crusts

A basic pie crust starts with only a few ingredients. This recipe and preparation is without a food processor. This pie crust has a traditional prep process. It takes longer and is much more hands on.

The ingredients are simple and prep time is extended due to hand mixing of the ingredients. However it’s possible to bake a fantastic pie crust that exemplifies good taste and makes for an excellent pie. No matter the filling chosen.

This pie crust also fits the bill for a simple recipe. It is an all butter pie crust using self rising flour. This combination is simple and requires the fewest ingredients to get a working pie crust. The self rising flour will help with creating a flaky crust.

The butter should be actual butter, not margarine. Also the butter should be cold. Straight from the fridge is best. The ratio of mix is one and a half cups of self rising flour to one cup of chilled butter. It takes a fork and some elbow grease to fully incorporate the butter into the flour. Once this is done the consistency can be adjusted by adding more flour.

Homemade

The results are not the same when a food processor is used. The mixing of the ingredients is more like a folding motion when done using the old fashioned fork technique. The ingredients are mashed together and incorporated into one another.

As mentioned earlier the self rising flour will help create a more flaky crust. However there are pie crust recipes that use shortening and yeast and all purpose flour, to achieve this effect. Self-rising flour is a shortcut to save prep time. Additionally, it has its own unique pie crust attributes that create a better homemade pie crust.