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.

Printable Recipe

1 box white cake mix
1 can cherry pie filling
1 t. lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup butter, melted

Spread the pie filling in the bottom of a greased, square 9-inch pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine the cake mix, nuts, and melted butter. Crumble it over the pie filling. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with ice cream.

Holly's Note:
This is an easy recipe to use if you need to take a meal to someone or are hosting a party or something. It's also versatile and you can use different kinds of pie filling. Try apple pie filling with a yellow cake mix and add 1 t. cinnamon to the cake mix.

Printable Recipe

3 large tart apples, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
12 shortbread or sugar cookies, crushed
2 cups vanilla ice cream
Whipped cream

Combine apples, sugar, water and seasonings in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Uncover, stir and cook for about 10 more minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat.

In a goblet or parfait glass, layer 1 tablespoon of cookie crumbs, about 1/2 cup of ice cream, and a fourth of the apple mixture. Top with remaining cookie crumbs and whipped cream. Serve immediately. Makes 4.

Holly's Note:
I made this one Christmas when it was just the 4 of us and my husband didn't want a whole apple pie sitting around. It was really good! My Dutch Apple Pie is better, mostly because there is just something good about pie crust, but this is very quick and easy. It looks really pretty in parfait glasses, but a bowl works just fine too! The original recipe came from a Quick Cooking magazine.

Printable Recipe
Serves 4

2 pie crusts
1-2 cups leftover beef roast or roasted chicken, cut into chunks
1 cup leftover gravy (or make your own)
½ cup chopped onion
1 cup leftover veggies or frozen
1 cup cooked potatoes, diced

Prepare pastry for double crust pie. (Basically roll one out for the bottom and put it in a deep pie dish, and roll out the second one to go on the top!)

Mix all the leftovers together and pour into the pie crust. You can reheat it all if you want. Place the second pie crust over everything and pinch the edges together. Make some small cuts in the top crust for venting.

Bake at 400 for about 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Holly's Note:
This is a fun way to use up those leftovers. I do this a day or so after I've made pot roast in my crock pot.

Printable Recipe

Pie Crust Pastry
3 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
dash nutmeg
3/4 cup chopped meat (we use bacon or sausage, but you can use chicken, crab or ham)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1 T. flour

Prepare pastry for a single-crust pie. Line crust with foil, bake at 450 for 5 minutes. Remove foil, bake for 5-7 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce heat to 350.

In a bowl, stir together eggs, milk, onion, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir in meat of your choice. Toss together cheese and flour and add to egg mixture. Pour egg mixture into hot pastry shell. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean. If necessary, cover edges with foil to prevent browning.

Let stand for 10 minutes.

Printable Recipe

Topping:
2/3 c. flour
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. butter

Filling:
2 lbs. tart cooking apples, peeled and sliced
1 T. lemon juice
2 T. flour
¾ c. sugar
dash salt
1 t. cinnamon

1. Prepare pie shell (using Pie Crust Pastry, which is awesome).
2. Make topping: cut butter into flour and sugar until the consistency of oatmeal
3. Preheat oven to 400
4. Make filling: sprinkle apples with lemon juice. Combine flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon together. Toss lightly with apples.
5. Put filling in unbaked pie shell. Cover with topping.
6. Bake 40-45 minutes or until apples are tender.

Holly’s Note:
This recipe came from one of my bridal showers. Alan says it’s the best apple pie he’s ever had.