Makes top and bottom crust for a 23 cm (9") two crusted pie.





340 g (about 2.5 cups) all purpose flour

6 g (1 teaspoon salt)

170 g (¾ cup) chilled unsalted butter (if you cut it into small pieces first and put it into the fridge it will be easier)

120 g (4-6 tablespoons) ice water (use a spray bottle if you have one)



Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl and cut in shortening with pastery blender.

Keep cutting until mixture looks like course corn meal.

Sprinkle water onto mixture and mix gently and quickly with a fork a little at a time until the mix holds together.

Do not use too much water!



Shape into a ball, divide in half, reball each half, rap each half in plastic wrap and press into a disk.

Place disks into your fridge and let rest for about 30 minutes.

Remove one half of the dough from the fridge and place onto a lightly floured pastery cloth.

Using a lightly floured, stockingnet covered rolling pin, roll the dough into a circle using firm strokes from the center out.



Roll out so that it is about 8 cm (3") in diameter larger than your pie plate and about 3 mm (1/8") thick.



Roll the crust gently up onto your rolling pin and transfer the crust centering over your pie plate.



Make sure that the crust overlaps the edges by about 2.5 cm (1"). Trim any excess with a sharp knife.



Press gently into the bottom of the pie plate. Patch any cracks by moistening and pressing scraps of dough onto them.

Using a fork, poke a few holes into the bottom of the crust.



If you are prebaking your crust, line the inside of the crust with a sheet of parchment paper, making sure that the edges of the crust are covered.

Fill the crust (parchment paper) with dry rice or uncooked beans and bake on the center rack of a 200 C (425 F) oven for 10 minutes. Let cool and remove beans/rice and parchment paper before filling



Notes:

Handle the dough as little as possible.

Keep everything chilled until baking.

There should be visible streaks of butter in your dough.

Halve recipe for single crust pie.

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