Friday, January 29, 2010

Double Pie Crust

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 1 stick ice cold unsalted butter; slice the cold butter into 1/2 inch pieces and freeze for about 10 minutes
1/2 cup ice cold lard; cut into 1/2 inch pieces and freeze for about 10 minutes
1/2 cup ice cold water

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Toss by hand to mix. Place the butter pieces over dry ingredients and toss to mix. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles small peas. Add the lard and continue to cut into all the fat until it is in small pieces. Sprinkle half of the ice water over the mixture. Toss the ingredients well with a fork to dampen the ingredients. Add the remaining water; 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time. Continue to mix ; pulling the mixture up from the bottom of the bowl in an upstroke manner gently pressing in the down stroke. When making pastry dough by hand, you sometimes absorb some of the liquid and need to add 1 to 2 tablespoons more water into the pastry until the pastry can be packed.

Using your hands, form pastry into two balls. One ball should be about 1 1/2 inches larger than the other for the under crust. Knead each ball once or twice and place each ball between two large sheets of plastic wrap dusted with flour. Flatten each ball into a 3/4 inch disk and refrigerate one hour to overnight.

Roll the larger disk out 1/8 inch thick to fit your baking dish. You should have about an inch of dough hanging over the top of your dish. Make the top crust 1/4 inch thick and place over the fruit filling. Either by using an egg mixture or cold water, attach the top crust to the extra bottom crust. You may also use an egg wash for the top of the crust. Some even sprinkle a Little sugar over the egg wash on the top crust. Bake as directed.