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Pie Crust and Topping


A fool proof crust from Babi and crumb topping from Mam Mam.  A pastry chef would have fits - we roll it until its almost too thin so it doesn't get in the way of the good part. Makes 2 crusts and toppings.  If you have berries that must be eaten soon then leave out the crust, spray a pie or tart plate with pam, do the filling and crumb topping, and cut the bake time to about 30 minutes.

Ingredients
 crust 
1½ C flour
½ C butter flavor crisco
4 T water
1 T cider vinegar

 filling 
2 P berries or apples or peaches or nectarines
½ t cinnamon (with apples)
⅔ C sugar
2 T corn starch
1 T lemon juice (omit with cherries or raspberries)

1 C sour cherries
1¼ C sugar

 crumb topping 
¾ C flour
½ C sugar
⅓ C butter
Preparation
 crust 
mix ingredients with a fork in a bowl til it forms a ball
split the ball in half
place a half between 2 sheets of wax paper and roll thin to fit pie plate
place in freezer for 5 minutes
peel wax paper from one side but put it back
flip over and peel other side and discard wax paper
put pie plate on upside down and centered
flip over, discard wax paper, and hand form edges to the plate rim

 filling 
wash (and peel) fruit
mix with remaining ingredients in crust bowl
add a little water if needed to moisten sugar and corn starch

 crumb topping 
melt butter in the crust bowl
add sugar and flour and mash with fork to make little peas
add more flour if too moist

bake on cookie sheet (to catch overflow) at 400 degrees for 50 minutes

30 minutes for a bottomless pie