12 Inch Pie Crust Food

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined.
• Firmly press crumb mixture into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Bake until crust is fragrant and edges are golden, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

MY MOM'S PIE CRUST

Steps:

• Sift together flour and salt. Cut shortening into flour with a pastry cutter until it has the texture of coarse crumbs. Combine egg, water, and vinegar (start with 3 tablespoons of water, and add the rest only if you need it to make the dough hold together). Pour into flour mixture all at once. Blend with a spoon just until flour is all moistened. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
• Gather into a ball and roll out on waxed paper. To place in pie plate, lift waxed paper and peel off when crust is in place. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before baking.
• To pre-bake, prick shell at 1/2-inch intervals before refrigerating. Press a doubled 12-inch square of aluminum foil into pie shell. Adjust oven rack to lowest position, heat oven to 400 degrees. Weight crust with pie weights. Bake, until crust is firmly set, about 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees, remove weights and foil, and continue to bake until crust is crisp and rich brown in color, about 8-10 minutes longer.
• Makes one double (top and bottom) crust or two single (bottom) crusts.
• Some of the secrets to light, flaky, tender pie crusts are: 1) Have the ingredients cool or chilled when you start; chill the dough when you aren't working with it (before you roll it out, after it's in the pie plate and before baking). 2) Handle the dough as little as possible; avoid over-blending or re-rolling it. You want to have unblended bits of shortening in the mixture, to create the flakey texture.

PASTRY FOR EXTRA-LARGE DOUBLE-CRUST PIE

Steps:

• In a bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in shortening until crumbly. Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Divide dough in half so that one ball is slightly larger than the other. Roll out larger ball to fit an 11-1/2-in. to 12-in. pie plate. Transfer pastry to pie plate; trim even with edge of plate. , Pour desired filling into crust. Roll out second ball; cut slits in pastry. Position over filling. Trim pastry to 1 in. beyond edge of pie plate. Fold top crust over bottom crust. Flute edges. Bake according to recipe directions.