A Quick Pie Crust

When you want pie, you want pie. My Grandmother's no-chill pie dough is a quick pie crust recipe which yields delicious results FAST.

I got home late and needed to whip together a quick meal for a dinner party. I made a no fuss chicken dinner and used this crust for a quick apple pie the other day. The whole meal took a little over an hour to prepare, and was quite tasty!

-Forkable

Step 1: The Recipe

My Grandmother's no-chill pie doughis delicious, easy, and quick because you don't need to chill it for a couple hours before rolling out!

This recipe requires:

2 1/2 c. Flour
1 c. Shortening
1 Tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 egg + 1/2 c. cold water

Comments

[plasiewski]

Hi,
I used this recipe to make a turkey pot pie and it came out fantastic! I added some rosemary, thyme and a splash of cream sherry to the mix, great flavor and tender. Thanks Grandma!!

[lozartist]

What temperature do you normally set your oven to?

[ladycroft108]

This recipe is great!!!
I made a savory pumpkin quiche for New Years Eve dinner, and it turned out perfectly light and flaky. Your grandma is a genius :)

[zoundsPadang]

I made a pumpkin pie with this recipe (Instructibles) and put it in this crust and it turned out WONDERFULLY. I garnished with Irish whipped cream and shaved chocolate.

This is possibly the best no-chill pie crust I've ever made. It's not terribly hard to work with and you definitely don't need to kneed it in a pillow case. I was able to build a crust without a rolling pin (though one would have been handy.) Thanks a bunch!

[islander_circe]

Why are you kneading the dough in an old pillow case? Is it simply to cut down on the mess or is there some other purpose?

[I_am_Canadian]

How long to you cook it for a no-bake filling?

[Forkable]

15-20 minutes maybe. Bake until the crust is golden brown. Just keep an eye on it.

[I_am_Canadian]

'S what I figured... It came out great!

[clairens]

may I ask what shortening is? I mean if you live in a non-english speaking country, what kind of chemical, or material should you be looking for? :) (is it like butter, or like whipped cream, or..amm, i don't know.. )

[Ginchi1730]

Shortening is Lard. At any rate it used to be. These days I imagine that they can make it with vegetable oil. You would probably know it as Crisco. Hugh

[sislong]

shortening is like butter ,lard ,solid vegetable oil

[Robbob76]

Shortening is similar to lard (fat). The most common brand is Crisco.

[clairens]

ahaaa!! okay, thanks. Now I understand.. it is an interesting term though..shortening.. :) fat is actually a shorter name than shortening :D but now I see you wrote "similar" not "the same as" fat..okay. :)

[CynicalStick]

It's not really like lard (although lard is gross too). It is an oil (soybean) that has been hydrogenated. It's a plastic fat (one molecule away from actually being plastic) and is very difficult for our bodies to process. It isn't really something that should be used for food purposes , and it leaves a nasty film in your mouth anyways. Butter is a little more expensive, but your arteries and your taste buds will thank you.

[zoundsPadang]

Sorry, I don't mean to be contradictory or mean, but I have a degree in biotechnology and you've been misinformed.

Crisco (today) is actually vegetable lard, made of saturated triglycerides. It's almost like the butter version of vegetable oil. To make it, you simply break the carbon-carbon double bonds of vegetable oil into single bonds, adding Hydrogen atoms. This makes the structure smoother and less kinked, resulting in molecules that nest closer to each other, forming a solid white Crisco mass.

Triglycerides are nothing like polycarbonates, polyesters, polyethylenes or any of the chemicals we traditionally think of as plastics. In fact, the chemical structures differ quite drastically, with triglycerides being made up of three long fatty acids connected to a glyceride backbone and plastics being made up of single or branching strands of repeating units, usually containing six-carbon rings.

In addition, triglycerides and plastics are both generally thought of as a single molecule, like water or iron. To say that a fat is "one molecule away from ... plastic" is like saying that the Golden Gate is one bridge away from being the Brooklyn Bridge.

All this isn't to say that fully hydrogenated triglycerides are a health food. They are a lot worse for a person than other fats, but they are not "very difficult for our bodies to process" at all. Butter, on the other hand, has quite a lot of cholesterol mixed in with its triglycerides. Cholesterol is what really builds up in your arteries, and avoiding eating too much is a very important part of developing a healthy diet and lifestyle.

I hope this has been helpful, though organic chemistry is a very difficult topic. Remember not to fall into the naturalistic fallacy and assume that anything natural must de facto be better than anything altered by chemistry. Aspirin is a chemically altered version of the salicylic acid we originally found in tree bark, but it's a very safe and effective anti-inflamatory.

[adawn4]

please be my friend !!!!

[Claudia Moema]

So, butter, there you go!!! I am from Brazil and I love sweets. I will try this pie for the weekend. if everything goes right, it may feature at Christmas Night or New year's Eve. Thanks for posting. ;D

[ClayOgre]

You ain't had good pie crust until you've had it made with lard. There's no comparison with any other sort of oil in a pie crust. Lard kinda gets a bad rap. But it's relatively inexpensive, and it does have some monounsaturated fat in it. However, watch out, there are some brands of lard that are hydrogenated. Armour brand, I believe, is hyrdrogenated. I usually buy Field brand lard, which isn't. I keep a small bucket of it in the fridge and use it primarily for making home made biscuits and pie crust once or twice a year. I also have a cake recipe which I occasionally use melted lard in. The lard makes for an especially moist cake.

http://fitnesstransform.blogspot.com/2008/08/organic-lard-oxymoron.html

[Forkable]

Thanks for your comment! I agree, there is no flakier crust then lard. The one thing I've never been sure of is how long lard stays good for in the fridge? Its one of the reasons I keep shortening on hand. But its true compared with the hydrogenated crap, lard is not that bad for you. I guess lard:shortening is the same as butter:margarine.

[ClayOgre]

Doing a google gave conflicting answers. Looks like anywhere from 9-18 months. 2 years if frozen. I know that the Field brand lard I buy, if left out on a hot day will turn somewhat liquid. I have kept mine in the fridge for as long as a year and not had any problems.

[Forkable]

that sounds really good. I should keep some around.

[nagutron]

Nice instructable. Here's a pic of how I arranged the top crust of the last pie I helped someone make.

[Forkable]

Nice!

[canida]

That shortening-in-water trick is priceless! Pie looks excellent, too. ;)

[Forkable]

I'm glad someone out there uses shortening. I don't always, but its good to have around in a pinch. I was preparing myself for a comment about trans-fats.