Pie Crust

Yesterday I promised you the pie crust recipe we used. It's one that I had been wanting to try for quite awhile now, ever since I found it one day on the internet. It has butter and lard in it and it is so flaky and so good!

If you're worried about the butter and lard you might want to read here and here first.

Butter and Lard Pie Crust
3 cups all purpose flour
1&1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons sugar
Mix together the dry ingredients. I used the food processor.
3/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
3/4 cup lard, chilled and cubed
Add the butter and lard and pulse until crumbly. It should look like coarse corn meal. And don't over mix.
4-5 tablespoons ice water
Dump the flour mixture into a bowl and add the water (4 tablespoons, then more if needed) and mix it with a fork until it just comes together. Divide the dough into two sections, turn it out onto two pieces of plastic wrap and shape into discs and wrap well. At this point the dough will be crumbly. Refrigerate until very cold and then you will be able to roll it out.

Once the dough is very well chilled you can turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it.

If you are going to bake it "blind" (without filling), chill the crust again once it is in the pan and then poke holes all over.

Set foil or parchment paper over the crust and fill with dried beans to weight it down.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Let the crust cool, remove the beans and bake for another 10 minutes, until golden brown.

If you bake it with a filling start it at a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes and then turn it down to 350 degrees and bake until done. This will keep the bottom from getting soggy.

For filled pies a metal pan is best. For "blind" pies you can use either glass or metal.

Try this, I think you will really like it!

Mixed Berry Pie

Yesterday I promised you the recipe for our pie.

And pictures!

After hitting the cookbooks we settled on a mixed berry pie. We found a recipe from Rachael Ray and tweaked it just a bit.

Mixed Berry Pie
8 inch pie crust, for top and bottom
20 ounces of your favorite frozen berries (we used a bag of mixed berries)
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup plus 2 T corn starch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream
Roll out and form the bottom pie crust. In a bowl mix the frozen fruit, sugar, corn starch, and lemon juice. Pour into the pie crust. Dot with the butter. Roll out the rest of the dough and fit over the pie. Trim the edges and using a fork poke holes over the top and flatten the edges of the pie. Mix the egg yolk and the cream together and brush over the top of the pie.

Cook for 15 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven and then turn down to 350 degrees and cook for 30 more minutes until golden brown. It's a good idea to set it on a cookie sheet in case it overflows.

This was delicious!! And the crust was "to die for". I'll share that recipe with you tomorrow.

And I must say April gets about 99 percent of the credit for this awesome pie!!