Thanksgiving Pie Crust Journal 2021

I decided to do a Pie Journal 2021 so I can remember what I did and what worked. Ha! I will come back and give reviews. I'm making 5 pies this year, going in two directions. 

In past years I have tried different recipes for crust. Because I only make pies about once or twice a year, I don't get into practice to get the feel of the piecrust. My failing is adding too much water to get the crust to hold together. I usually use a recipe that has some forgiveness to it.  An easy no fail piecrust I've used before is Kittencal's No Fail Piecrust. It's a good recipe. Trust the water amount.  I've used this apple pie recipe from King Arthur for many years and really like it. It gets good reviews from eaters, too. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/apple-pie-recipe. I usually make the One Pie Pumpkin Pie Recipe, but I add a little more molasses and decrease the milk a tad. 

Here are the crusts I've made so far for 2021. Because why go with tried and true?  

Flaky Sour Cream Pie Crust at Serena Bakes.  I liked that it is "extremely forgiving". We will see. 

This version of the Clinton Street Pie Crust where I increased the ingredients for a larger deep dish, and tweaked the butter and shortening amounts to make for easier measuring. 

Dixie's Tweaks of Clinton Street recipe: 

For a double crust for larger 10" deep dish pie 

3 cups flour

1/2 cup flour for rolling out dough

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) 

5 tablespoons shortening

4 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 pinches of salt

2/3 cups of cold whole milk 

Mix everything except the milk together. Cut the fats in with your preferred method until they resemble peas and it's a coarse mixture. Then add the milk in a tablespoon at a time. 

Here's another recipe which I KNOW is good. My husband's cousin Rachel made this pie and it beat out the Amish apple pie I got at the farmer's market! 

Olive's Apple Pie

Crust: 

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup shortening

4 tablespoons water

Filling: 

6-7 cups sliced apples

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons flour 

Deep Dish version of Olive's recipe: 

Crust: 

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt and a pinch

3/4 cup shortening

5 tablespoons water

Filling: 

8-9 cups sliced apples

3/4 cup plus 1-2 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2-3 tablespoons flour 

Make crust.  Line pan, fill with apple mixture, dot with butter. Put top crust on, cut slits.  Bake.