Sweet or Savory, a Crust is a Crust

Wow, we made it to Friday! Recently I used leftover chicken from my Granny's matzah ball soup recipe to make a chicken pot pie (single crust)! But a pie crust is a pie crust is a pie crust, and while each can be made differently and used for different types of desserts, the delicacy of the crust is important in every situation. How much you handle the crust and knead the dough is key - and it's as little as possible. While it's easy to make a crust in a food processor, using a pastry blender is easy and leads to a better result! Check out the steps to making an herb crust below (but choose your favorite recipe to bake it into a crust!):

Herb Crust

Bon Appetit, Oct 1999

Makes single crust

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (**I sub in 1 cup of whole wheat flour**)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 6 1/2 tablespoons (about) ice water

Directions

1. Blend first 5 ingredients in processor until herbs are very finely chopped. Add butter and shortening. Blend until mixture resembles coarse meal. 
2. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Using fork, mix enough ice water into flour mixture to form moist clumps. 
3. Gather dough into ball; flatten into rectangle. Cover and chill 30 minutes. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly before rolling out.)

Dry ingredients and herbs

Mix with a pastry blender
and then a fork for the ice water

Mix until combined, but that's it!

Roll out at least 30 min later