The word “classic” certainly applies here. Crisco was introduced in 1911 and millions of us grew up on this crust — also a classic pate brisee — and now that Crisco’s been reformulated (see Pie Crust, Crisco & Trans Fat), I’ve rediscovered it. Conventional wisdom among my mom and her friends was that nothing made a flaky crust like Crisco or lard and yes, sometimes Mom was right.
I’m making this recipe today for a new and somewhat unusual autumn pie, but instead of my pathetic photos I can send you to a professional resource which is especially valuable for beginners and those who’ve never made crust in a food processor. You’ll find step-by-step illustrations along with a good video at Crisco’s website.
The link to Crisco includes the brief instructions for making this crust in the processor; I’ll provide Crisco’s directions for making it by hand. To make it in a stand mixer, use my directions here as a guide.
Classic Crisco Pie Crust
Single Crust
1 1/3 level cups PILLSBURY BEST® All-Purpose Flour
1/2 level teaspoon salt
1/2 Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening Stick or 1/2 level cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
3 tablespoons cold water
Double Crust
2 level cups PILLSBURY BEST® All-Purpose Flour
1 level teaspoon salt
3/4 Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening Stick or 3/4 level cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
5 tablespoons cold water
9-inch Deep Dish Double Crust or Two 10-inch Double Crust
2 2/3 cups PILLSBURY BEST® All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
7 to 8 tablespoons cold water
Spoon flour into measuring cup and level.Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in Crisco using pastry blender (or 2 knives) until all flour is blended in to form pea-size chunks. Sprinkle with water, one tablespoon at a time. Toss lightly with fork until dough will form ball. Divide dough in half, if making double crust. Press between hands to form one or two 5 to 6-inch pancakes.
Flour dough lightly. Roll into circle between sheets of waxed paper on dampened countertop. Peel off top sheet. For single crust, trim one inch larger than inverted 9-inch pie plate. Flip into pie plate. Remove other sheet and press pastry to fit. Fold edge under. Flute.
For double crust, flour each half of dough lightly. Roll into circles between sheets of waxed paper on dampened countertop. Peel off top sheet for bottom crust. Transfer bottom crust to pie plate. Remove other sheet and press pastry to fit. Trim edge even with pie plate. Add desired filling to unbaked pie crust. Remove top sheet from top crust. Lift top crust onto filled pie. Remove other sheet. Trim to 1/2-inch beyond edge of pie plate. Fold top edge under bottom crust. Flute. Cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake according to specific recipe instructions.
For single baked pie shell, heat oven to 425ºF. Thoroughly prick bottom and sides with fork (50 times) to prevent shrinking. Bake at 425ºF for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. For recipe calling for unbaked pie shell, follow baking directions given in that recipe.
Pillsbury is a trademark of The Pillsbury Company.
Related: Who Makes Pillsbury Flour? Chill. And Other Pie Crust Tips Pie Making Tools
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That is my mom’s pie crust recipe. She always stressed not to use any other shortening for pie crust but Crisco.
I do use butter in my crust, but I also listen to my mother and strictly use Crisco for the rest of the shortening.
That recipe is the epitome of tried and true, and our moms were on the same page.
I’m finding it a little odd to get used to Crisco crusts again. I mainly use a French pin and I feel the dough a lot — I’m a very tactile baker, lol — and it feels soooo different. Maybe by spring I’ll be used to it again.
This crust just didn’t come together like my grandmother’s recipe, which is ever so slightly different, mostly in technique. In her 2 C recipe, you remove 1/3 C of the flour and mix it the 1/4 C water, then you add that to the shortening/flour mixture. I always did hers in the food processor and I was always thrilled at how it came together into a ball in just a few seconds after adding that water/flour mixture. I decided to try this “standard” recipe this time, and I think I very nearly ruined the crust…it just wouldn’t come into a ball even after the maximum amount of water. I decided to just go ahead and pack it into a ball by hand and roll it out and bake it and use it. I baked one of the cut off pieces and it seemed to taste OK, but I’m very nervous to be serving this tomorrow (Thanksgiving) b/c it just didn’t come together like I’m used to. I think I’ll stick with my Grandma’s method. Once I made her crust with all butter, and it didn’t turn out well at all. It was hard and stuck to the pie plate terribly. As much as I despise shortening for health reasons, I guess it really does make the best pie crust.
I’m sorry to hear that, Elle, especially right before a holiday. It sounds as if you had too much flour. If you measure it by scooping instead of lightly spooning it into the cup, you will have too much. I weigh mine.
You’re absolutely right about butter crusts being more difficult to handle , especially in a warm kitchen, but actually Crisco — now zero g trans fat — is healthier in terrms of cholesterol. Lard is healthier than butter. I have a post here called Pie Crust, Crisco and Cholesterol that goes into that. For that reason I removed the all-butter recipe I had here.
Meantime, here’s a food processor recipe that’s virtually foolproof:
http://foodpluspolitics.com/2007/03/26/pie-crust-crisco-trans-fat/
This is what is linked to above where I mention the processor method. We did everything by hand in pastry school, a bit like learning manual transmission I suppose and it’s the classical technique, but my favorite method for crusts is the processor. It’s so fast.
Please let me know how things end up and if you have to use a purchased crust for tomorrow, so be it. There’s no shame in trying and not being fully happy with the outcome. You tried — that matters most.
Wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving.
This is the best crust recipe ever. Also from my mom. Elle is right, the 1/3cup flour seperate with the water first is key. it makes a big difference. THis recipe will change your pies forever!! So flaky, it makes all other pie crusts lame by comparison. Don’t knead too much. it’ll make it heavy.
It is a great recipe, jenny. I must say I’d never heard of that 1/3 cup method till the two of you mentioned it. Given what I know about flour, fat and water, I can’t imagine doing it, but I will try it. I’m curious now.
You’re absolutely right about not overhandling the dough, even though it’s easy to do so. Thanks for your comment!
As one of those Moms, who learned from her Mom, the water-plus-flour method has always worked for me. I also use butter-flavor Crisco for a very flaky crust with some butter flavor.
Hi, Anne – I still haven’t tried that method, as I’ve got several crusts in the freezer from the last time I made them, but I will try it. I’ll stick with plain Crisco though. I admit I’m not a fan of the butter-flavored. Too artificial-tasting for my palate and doesn’t taste at all like butter.
Thanks for your comment and Happy New Year!
The 1/3 cup method that I’m reading is new to me too. I like making my own pie crusts and I get several compliments but I don’t feel very confident about it.
So you measure 2 cups flour, take 1/3 cup of that away and add 1/4 cup water to this, then mix it with your your remaining flour/shortening? You don’t need any more water? Please explain
Melanie – It was new to me too and I still haven’t tried it. It sounds like you described, making what is essentially a very wet “paste” of part of it and adding it in. I’m guessing 1/4 cup of water is plenty. That’s 4TB and is more than I ever need for a double crust.
I prefer a food processor for making pie crust and if you have one but don’t use it for crusts, do try it. But if you’re already getting compliments you must be doing something very right. I’m sure your confidence will grow with experience. I have several other posts here that might help; just click on “Pies and tarts” at the very top of this post to be taken to their archive.
My wife recently (at my insistence) used the double crust Crisco recipe rather than her own. She baked a left-over portion of the dough and we found it to be hard and salty, Her recipe consists of 1 C. flour, 1/2 C of shortening, 1/4 C water and a pinch of salt. Her crusts are flaky-even though she does not chill the ingredients or let the dough rest after mixing. She has gotten rave reviews from her crusts and has used this recipe (her mothers) for over fifty years
morrie, morrie…we all know Don’t Mess with Mom’s Recipes!
Thanks for stopping by.
I loved finding this recipe here! I’ve done the Crisco crust since my first attempts at making pies – I had little pie plates 4″ in diameter, and rolled out the crust on the seat of a kitchen chair!
It’s one of the few things I make exactly as my grandmother did – 1/3 c. Crisco to every 1 c. spooned flour, and “enough ice water to make it right”. Nothing else but the pinch of salt, if I remember it. I do it by hand, with a pastry blender and a fork, and the lightest touch possible.
It turns out beautifully, every time – flaky as can be. And the trimmings go straight to the oven, with a brush of butter and cinnamon sugar on top!
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Isn’t it just the best? This recipe is so popular, day in and day out. My mom made cinnamon sugar trimmings too, rolled up like bales of hay. It was the best part for me, always.
One of these days I have to write about having found the origin of the paste method mentioned by a few earlier commenters. I discovered it quite by accident and it’s an interesting story. Thanks for your comment!
The cutter/fork method is best with the traditional recipe. You should be able to see the marble of the fat in the dough through a piece of cling wrap if you handle it lightly enough. It is ‘tossed’ with the fork as you ’sprinkle’ the ice water a tblsp at a time, not beaten or stirred. The dough does not have to form a ball but should pull any dry ingredients away from the bowl. As long as it is easily moldable into a ball after it is mixed. I prefer that it doesn’t ball up in the bowl, as this adds more break down of the fat. It best to save that half of a step when forming it for rolling.
I do chill the ingredients if I am working in the warmer part of the year and I keep my crisco in the freezer. I used to roll it right on a floured surface but I have found that if I roll it between wax paper, then place the freshly rolled dough onto a designated shelf in the refrigerator to chill and firm, it becomes much easier to plate or whatever other handling that may be needed and it buys me time between other processes I may have going at the same time. I first separate one side of the wax paper and then put it back on, flip it over and remove the other side which makes the first sheet I pre-removed, easier to remove and this stops from the crust getting ’stretched’ at all when transferring it to the pie plate without folding it.
This allows me to make things such as apple/fruit burritos without stretching or tearing the crust along with many other plateless recipes, including those wonderful cinnamon rollups that mom used to make from the leftover crust that there was never enough of. I now designate a double crust recipe just for those little treats alone whenever baking pies and is the one thing that the kids insist on, even if I don’t make pies at all.
As far as butter? If it is a butter taste one is after, a few tabs in with the filling will add more of a buttery flavor than it will when mixed in with the crust.
I don’t think anyone can flatly state a particular method is best for everyone; I think “best” is what works best for each person. In pastry school, despite an array of machines along the wall, we made all crusts by hand and by that I mean we used our fingertips. I do like that method for its ease and control, especially with butter, but some people don’t.
If you enjoy using wax paper and it helps, that’s great you’ve found something that works for you. Parchment paper is often used instead. If a dough is mixed correctly and the kitchen’s not overly warm and if it’s not a full-of-fat dough (so many variables!) I have no trouble rolling or transferring the dough. But I don’t believe in being a martyr, so if it’s troublesome I reach for the parchment without apology.
I use crisco but the recipe I use 2 c all purpose flour, 1 c shortening, 3/4 t salt, 1 egg, 2 T cold water, 1T white vinegar. mix 1st 3 ingredients until pea size. mix egg,water,&vinegar in cup with fork add to flour mixture. Chill or freeze for use later. Enjoy! Don’t over mix as it becomes tough.
Hi, barb. My apologies for the delay in replying, but I moved quite recently, 3 stories of stuff, and I’ve been swamped.
You’re absolutely right about not overmixing, no matter which recipe one uses for pie crust. The less it’s handled, the better. That’s why I love making it in the processor. A few seconds and it’s done! Thanks for your comment!