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chowmama

(927 posts)
6. For every cup of flour
Fri Jul 4, 2025, 09:57 AM
Jul 2025

use 1/3 to 1/2 cup fat. Less than 1/3 cup, the crust is powdery. More than 1/2 cup, the crust just melts down the side of the dish. You can eyeball this; anywhere between these amounts is going to be just fine.

For my taste, add a good bit of salt - say a 3 finger, 1 thumb scoop pinch.

Enough cold water to make the texture.

For fat, use your preferred: lard, butter or veg shortening. Butter tastes great, but browns really quickly and you may need to protect it with foil partway through the cooking. Veg shortening adds no flavor and is easily manageable, but has little else to recommend it. Lard has great flavor and is easy to work with, but freaks some people out. You can use more than one fat in the same batch.

Cut half the fat in fairly well. Start cutting the rest in, but leave it in bigger chunks; mostly the size of lentils, with a few pea-size. These are your flakes.

Add cold water gradually. being careful to not overmix, until you think it's just a hair too dry and see if it evens out by osmosis. You can always add a few drops more. Put it aside in the fridge for a while to pull itself together and get cold, so you don't lose the flakes. Add your few drops of water to adjust it after this rest. If it's too wet, use extra flour to roll it out.

I have used shortening for the first half and butter for the flakes in the past. I'm starting to use lard more and liking it.

I confess I'm a sloppy roller and always fail to produce a perfect round. Therefore, for a one-crust shell, I use at least 1 1/2 cups of flour and for a double crust, I use at least 2 1/2 cups. The trimmings get used for little jam turnovers as a snack. DH waits for those.

This technique (I hesitate to call it a recipe) is older than dirt. You can make as much or as little as you want.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

The best pie crust recipe I've tried: [View all] no_hypocrisy Jul 2025 OP
Cut the egg and the butter. Use cider vinegar. marble falls Jul 2025 #1
You sir are a rebel with a cause. Duncanpup Jul 2025 #2
'n my gramma was one before me. She saved the eggs for making noodles, the butter for toast. marble falls Jul 2025 #3
That's a lot of... 2naSalit Jul 2025 #4
agree, except lard Kali Jul 2025 #5
For every cup of flour chowmama Jul 2025 #6
Hey! That's my recipe! Retrograde Jul 2025 #8
My mum's is the ultimate, I'm afraid... buzzycrumbhunger Jul 2025 #7
+1000 on using lard justaprogressive Jul 2025 #9
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