Pie Crust, my nemesis. It has been a really, really long time since I've tried to make pie crust. I gave up after failing miserably more than a few times. Usually it was my fault, misreading amounts and that kind of thing. Today my coworker sent me a link on the MSN website in the lifestyle section to an article that was all about pie including recipes for various kinds of pie as well as two kinds of crusts: one for a pie dough that you bake together with the filling and another for a cooked pie crust for frozen or non-baked pies. This is the former.

After deciding I would make a pie I considered my usual method for making pie crust, namely buying a frozen one at the store. Marie Calendars' is the best and they make the crust extra deep which comes in handy. I'll be interested to see if this one is good enough to change my mind about just buying crust. I have to say it already has the advantage of being a lot quicker. But, I felt that this pie crust dough recipe was calling out to me, saying, "Baking Fool, try me, try me!" And so I have.

Grandma's Pie Dough
From MSN Lifestyle

Makes 4 single crusts
Working time: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 3/4 cups cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 egg (extra large)

Directions:

• Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
• Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
• Whisk the vinegar, egg, and 1/2 cup of ice water together and mix into the flour mixture with your hands until just combined.
• Transfer to a clean work surface, and gently press to form a dough.
• Divide the dough into 4 equal parts.
• Shape each into a ball, flatten slightly to form a disk, and wrap in plastic.
• Chill for at least 1 hour.

About this recipe: I think the time estimate of 10 minutes is a little short. It probably took me more like 20 minutes all together, but I was trying to be careful and do it right. I can't imagine it would take 10 minutes especially if you use your fingers to cut in the butter. I think using a food processor would be ideal for this recipe. I didn't do that this time because I didn't want to jinx it but that would definitely cut down the time it takes to make this.

Once you get your flour butter mixture to a nice course meal and pour in the liquid it all comes together really easily. I did my classic kneading in the bowl (just kind of roll it around kneading it into the walls of the bowl) so I didn't have to flour the counter and knead it out there, even though I washed and dried my surface for that purpose. Anyway, the liquid was plenty to make this dough come together in a snap.

This recipe makes 4 rounds that you can roll out to 1/4 inch to fit an 8 or 9 inch round pie pan. Tomorrow I'm making either an apple pie or a strawberry rhubarb pie with this crust so stay tuned!