Classic Crisco Pie Crust Recipe + Deep Dish Adaptation - Unsophisticook (2024)

FAQs

What makes a better pie crust Crisco or butter? ›

Butter pie crust has the most flavor out of the three fats. This pie crust bakes up nice and golden brown, with plenty of flaky layers.

#2—Add cold water

Before you start making the dough, fill a glass with ice and water. Add the ice water gradually to the dough, about one tablespoon or so at a time, and stop when the dough is just moist enough to hold together when a handful is squeezed.

After the discovery that trans fats are linked with heart problems, consumers in more recent years have opted to use various substitutes for shortening. In order to compete, Crisco had to change its recipe. Since 2007, the brand has eliminated nearly all of the trans fats in its Crisco products.

Flour: For a tender crust, choose a low-protein flour. Pastry flour, with a protein content of about 8-10%, ranks between all-purpose flour and cake flour. All-purpose flour works just fine for pie crusts, while cake flour might lack enough protein to form a workable, elastic dough.

Start with chilled ingredients

Butter creates a sturdy, crisp pie crust. For this, it is important to keep all ingredients cold which will inhibit the development of gluten in the flour. Use butter right out of the refrigerator and add ice-cold water to make the dough.

To maintain its shape during baking, pastry needs liquid to activate the flour's gluten. For flaky, tender texture, it also requires fat. The balance of those two ingredients is critical. Too much fat and the crust loses its structure and shrinks; too much liquid, it's hard and leathery.

PIE DOUGH RULES

As important as not overmixing is staying chilled, literally!! That means keeping all elements cold— your counter, ingredients, hands, heart (just kidding!). No, but seriously, cut up your butter into little cubes and chill them before you incorporate them into the flour.

Water, however, is absorbed much less easily into flour proteins when the temperature is colder. That's why purists recommend cold ingredients, cold equipment and marble boards. Keeping the butter cold also helps when making short crust pastry because it doesn't melt into the flour when you are working it in.

Traditionally, what you're looking for in a pie crust are three basic things: you want it to be fully cooked through, without any doughiness between the filling and the bottom crust, you want the crust to be light and flaky with discernible layers, and, of course, you want there to be a rich, buttery flavor.

Vegetable oils like canola and olive oil may be a healthier alternative to shortening because they're lower in saturated fats.

Why isn't shortening used anymore? ›

Shortening is a type of fat used in cooking and baking. It's typically made from hydrogenated vegetable oil and has a long history of use in American kitchens that dates back to the early 1900s. However, shortening has fallen out of favor in the past few decades because of its high trans fat content.

Though the science is sketchy, a few professional pie bakers swear that it improves the texture of the crust, and they wouldn't dream of making pie dough without it. (Others swear by similarly acidic ingredients like lemon juice.) The acidic properties of vinegar inhibit gluten, some will say.

The general rule of thumb for an egg wash is one well-beaten whole egg plus one to two tablespoons of water. More water will lighten the golden color, or for a shinier pie, you can substitute the water with cream or milk. Sometimes, an egg wash is made with just yolks for extra color—or just whites for extra shine.

Unlike water, alcohol does not contribute to the formation of gluten, the network of proteins that can cause a crust to turn leathery. Because the alcohol burns off quickly in the oven, drying out the crust, we could add enough vodka to keep the dough wet and extremely supple.

50% Less Saturated Fat than Butter*Crisco Shortening: 3.5g saturated fat per tablespoon. Butter: 7g saturated fat per tablespoon. Crisco Shortening contains 12g total fat per serving. Excellent source of ALA Omega-3 fatty acid*Contains 710mg of ALA per serving, which is 44% of the 1.6g Daily Value for ALA.

You shouldn't have any issue when substituting butter for shortening here. A piecrust made with butter or margarine won't be as flaky as one made with shortening. If you're a fan of flaky, you may not want to substitute butter for shortening in piecrust.

As shortening is able to withstand higher temperatures and does not melt easily, it creates flaky and crisp yet tender pie crusts when used alone or in combination with butter.

Butter: I try to be unbiased -- all pie is good pie. But for me, butter has always been the way to go. The flavor can't be beat, and if you know how to handle it properly it can make a supremely flaky crust. Because butter has a higher melting point, it also melts nicely in your mouth.