#33 - Homemade Country Pie Crust

(by Harriet Weaver)

5 cups flour
2 cups Crisco (generous, heaping)
1/2 stick of margarine or butter
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. Arm & Hammer baking soda
1 egg
1 TBSP cider vinegar

Using your hands or a pastry blender, mix flour, crisco, margarine, salt, and baking soda until it's crumbly. Set aside. In a measuring cup, add egg and vinegar and beat with a fork. Add water until the egg mixture and the water meet the 1 cup line on your measuring cup. Beat with a fork. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix everything with hands until you can form a ball. Roll out the dough.

This makes 5 - 10" crusts or 6 - 9" crusts. You can roll and re-roll and the crust won't get tough. You can refrigerate for a week, or you can freeze it for 3-4 months.

To freeze dough, make flat pieces (about an inch thick) and wrap each crust in saran wrap. Put in a ziploc bag. You can take out one at a time when you need them. To thaw in microwave, place one crust (leave saran wrap on). Set on defrost for :30 on each side. If not thawed, put in longer (microwaves vary).

When you want to bake a single crust, spray the inside of the pie plate with Pam cooking spray and form the crust on the inside of a pie plate. Crimp the edges of the crust using your fingers or a fork. Now spray the inside of the pie crust with Pam cooking spray. Place another pie plate in the first pie plate (with crust in between). Put both pie plates (with crust in between) in oven and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown. The second pie plate keeps the crust from shrinking.

Now you can fill with lemon merangue, chocolate merangue, coconut creme, banana cream, etc.