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Vintage Recipe for Pastry or Pie Crust


This recipe is located on the back of the card that holds the Brown Sugar Pecan Pie recipe. Mom took the liberty of adding amounts for two pastry crusts in the recipe. I think that's an interesting add, because she shows here that she might have been under some stress while baking, although she learned to bake at an early age from her mother. The addition of those double amounts made it easier for her to avoid calculating on the fly, although she was pretty good with math. She handled the household budget during 60 years of my parents' marriage. What I find interesting is the second ingredient as will as the water sprinkle...take a look:

Pastry - 1 Crust (2 Crusts)

Mix:

(2) 1 Cup sifted flour
(1/2) 1/2 Tsp salt
(2/3) 1/3 Cup lard (or 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp. Crisco or Spry*)

Sprinkle:

(1/4) 2 Tbsp water

Mix with fork until all flour is moistened. Gather dough together and press firmly into a ball. 

She didn't proceed with the oven temperature or time, because I believe she used these crusts unbaked as shells for pie filling that required baking. Also, I do now know that mom meant 1/2 tsp salt for one crust, and that sounds about right to me. So, for two crusts, you would need 1 tsp of salt. As for the amount of water, that's simple math. Four tablespoons = 1/4 cup.

Now, if you want to bake the crust to use with custard fillings and such, then you can blind bake it.

  • First, chill the dough so it rolls out easier after the gluten has had time to relax.
  • Then, heat the oven to 425°.
  • Next, roll out the pie dough and press it into a pie pan.
  • Line the crust with parchment paper, because you want to fill it with weights such as rice or dry beans. The weights will prevent the middle of the crust from puffing up while baking. See images of these weights in use at All Recipes.
  • Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye on the crust, though, and don't let it over-brown, because you're going to return it to the oven shortly for another 5-7 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and remove the parchment paper and the weights, then return the crust to the oven to heat up that bottom. Heat for 5-7 minutes, or until the bottom of the crust looks dry. This is why you don't want to over-cook in the first round, otherwise the edges of the crust may burn. Alternately, you can cover the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent them from baking any further.
* Spry is a vintage vegetable shortening invented in 1936, and that is available only in Cyprus these days. Read more at Wikipedia. If you don't have any "lard" on hand, the best substitute is equal amounts of unsalted butter.

Let me know about your successes and/or your issues in the comments...I'll try to answer!

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