Cape Breaton Nan's Pie Crust

Cape Breaton Nan's Pie Crust

Makes enough dough for a top and bottom crust

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 1/2 Cup Vegetable Shortening
• 2 Cup Flour
• 3 Tablespoons ice cold Water
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
• 1 Egg

Instructions:

1. In a food processor Pulse the butter, vegetable shortening and flour together just until a smooth sandy consistency is reached. 
2. The key to a light a flaky pie crust is to never ever over mix. 
3. Transfer to a large bowl and create a well in the center of the bowl. 
4. In a small bowl lightly whisk the egg, and add the water and lemon juice, add all at once to the flour mixture and quickly combine with your hands. 
5. Trying to not over mix as we still need to knead! 
6. Turn the just combined dough onto a floured surface and lightly knead till smooth and workable. 
7. Divide dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least an hour. 
8. After chilling dough, roll it out onto a floured surface and lift onto pie by rolling the rolled out dough onto the rolling pin, and rolling off into the pie plate. 
9.  Fill and finish the pie according to the recipe. 
10. This dough usually bakes well at 350°F for 10-15 minutes for an empty shell, or upwards of 35 minutes for a filled pie.

Enjoy!

Notes:

So Nearly a month ago I posted a recipe for Snow White's Poison Apple Pie but failed to include my recipe for home made pie crust.  The thing is I couldn't quite find where I had written down my favorite pie crust recipe.  Which makes it extra unfortunate that I was just having a laugh at my mother in my last post about her bad recipe organizing system.  But oh well, I am a scatter brain in a different way than my mother; but we still very alike no matter what.  But let's return to the task at hand, making a perfect pie crust by hand!  It really isn't that hard to pull off, but a lot of people just don't feel they can make a good pie crust, or at least maybe they just feel it's too much work, or the store made ones are good enough.  But pie making should be a prerequisite for marriage in my books, so it's a good thing I already got this pie making thing down.

I must also confess that I am not the one who was lucky enough to have a Cape Breaton Nan growing up, I had a hard line Scots woman as Grammie who was quite bored by children by the time I came around and a lovely Nanny from Nova Scotia. My best friend was the lucky one in the baking Nan department.  My friend was kind enough to share her family recipe for pie crust and I tweaked it a bit to better serve my needs, and because there isn't a recipe on the planet that I don't try and change up.