Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pie Crust

(Photo is not mine, it's from the Pioneer Woman Cooks)

1-½ cup shortening
3 cups flour
1 egg
5 T. cold water
1 T. white vinegar
1 t. salt

In a large bowl cut the shortening into the flour until it resembles coarse meal or oatmeal. I always start with the pastry cutter, but end up using my hands. In a small bowl, beat an egg with a fork and then pour it into the flour/shortening mixture. Add 5 tablespoons of cold water, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir together gently until all of the ingredients are incorporated. You don't want it mixed well.  You want to see streaks of shortening in your dough which makes it flakier.

Separate the dough into thirds. Form 3 evenly sized balls of dough and place each ball of dough into a large ziploc bag. Using a rolling pin, slightly flatten each ball of dough (about ½ inch thick) to make rolling easier later. Seal the bags and place them in the freezer until you need them. (If you will be using it immediately it’s still a good idea to put in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes to chill.)

When you are ready to use the dough to make a crust, remove from the freezer and allow it to thaw for about 15 minutes. On a floured surface, roll it out like you would any pie crust.

Holly's Note:

I have the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook and, for the most part, I enjoy it. I really like just looking through it and reading Ree's hysterical commentary.  

I have my own tried-and-tested-absolutely-fantastic-pie -crust-recipe that I use for everything needing a pie crust.  I have found nothing, nothing that is better than my pie crusts.

Now, my recipe makes ~15 pie crusts at one time and I just freeze them.  Making that many crusts and freezing them really takes very little time and it's so convenient to have them already on hand.  And, I absolutely agree with Ree when she says that it's the freezing that makes the crust flakier. 

I was out of pie crusts (something that rarely ever happens) when I decided to make this recipe instead, just to see if it was as good as PW says.  It came together quickly, which was nice, and it made three crusts, which was nice.  Now, I love eating pieces of pie dough as I make pies and this dough didn't taste good, probably because it contains vinegar, I don't know.   The crusts, when they baked up were nice and flaky, but my family noticed immediately that the crust tasted different and they all said that my crusts tasted better.

Ree states in the book that this Perfect Pie Crust recipe has replaced all her others.   It won't replace mine, but it is a convenient recipe when you need a quick crust.