Was talking to my friend, G, the other day, and she said that her husband refuses to make pie crusts. Now, this is a guy who is such a skilled home pastry chef that he makes the most wonderful cream puffs, cheesecakes, and, get this, apple strudel (I would not attempt that in my life time). But he will not make his own pie crust! That boggles me (and if you're reading this, John, let me assure you I'm not making fun of you, but am convinced that you'd make a darned outstanding pie crust if you tried to).
I've read many things about finicky pie crusts, yada yada, but have never found that to be the case. I use the oil pie crust recipe found in my Good Housekeeping cookbook and have had years of success with it. It may not be the flakiest crust ever (I won't use lard or shortening), but it's a fine, fine crust, nonetheless.
When I made G a peach pie on Saturday, I timed it. It took me maybe 5 minutes to whip up the dough, and about 11 minutes from the time I plopped the dough onto parchment paper to roll out to when I finished doing decorative crimping and popped it in the fridge. It is so easy!
The filling took much longer (about 40 minutes from starting to peel peaches to pouring it into the crust).
There are things I'd pay money for (like apple strudel!), but pie crust ain't one of them.
"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)
