Pie crust 101

Hello! I hope you all had a good fast if you did so, and are eating with lots of family around you! Today I wanted to give you an update on my pie-making, by sharing a crust recipe with you. Ever get confused about what the recipe means when it tells you to make butter "pea-sized" or watch it "come together?" I'm going to walk you through each step so you can easily do it at home. Here goes:

Orange Lattice Crust
Bon Appetit, March 1998

Ingredients:

Add butter to flour mixture

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 6 to 7 tablespoons chilled orange juice

Directions:

1. Combine flour, sugar and salt in large bowl; add butter. Using fingertips, rub in butter until pieces   range in size from rice grains to peas. Add shortening; rub in until pieces are size of small peas. 
2. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons juice over, tossing gently with fork to blend. Continue adding enough juice 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork, to form moist clumps. 
3. Gather dough into ball; divide into 2 parts, 1 slightly larger than the other. 
4. Flatten dough onto disks. Wrap in plastic; chill 1 1/2 hours or up to 1 day.

   

Gather into two balls, flatten.

Pea-sized butter and shortening.

Add OJ until forms moist clumps