Crust Recipes

Making a flaky pie crust is both an art and a science. Only through experimentation can you learn the exact amount of blending of the dough that allows the crust to bake flaky and not 'tough' or chewy. Some bakers recommend that you refrigerate all the ingredients for a half hour before beginning.

The key to good pastry is to not handle it much. The warmth of your hands when handling the dough causes the shortening to become liquid, therefore blending too much with the flour. This causes the crust to become tough. Pastry dough should be coarse-blended. According to some cooks, the dough should form bits the size of split peas, others say the texture should resemble cornmeal.

The bits of unblended shortening in the dough will melt in the baking process, leaving small airy cavities where they had been, and causing the 'flakes' that make the pastry 'flaky'.

Pastry is made with lard or vegetable shortening, since butter contains too much water. If substituting butter for shortening (not recommended), you will need to learn, through trial and error, how much to reduce your amount of water to account for the water in the butter.

A pastry blender is a boon to the baker making pie crusts. This gadget has a handle from which suspend u-shaped blades or wires. These blades 'cut in' the shortening into the flour, which you would otherwise have to do with knife blades, and significantly reduces the time this process takes.