Make It Homemade: Pie Crust

Believe it or not, pie crust is exceptionally easy to make. It is almost as easy as ripping open the store bought stuff, but oh so much tastier and healthier (the store bought stuff has partially hydrogenated junk in it)! If you have a food processor, this will take you less than 5 minutes. Cutting in the butter takes a bit more time by hand, but you have more control. I personally prefer my food processor.

Make sure your butter is HARD and COLD. Basically, you want to put little bitty piece of butter in your dough that will melt in the hot oven creating tiny little air pockets for a nice, flaky crust.

I have successfully frozen and re-used this crust so go ahead and make a full recipe even if you only need one crust.

Pie Crust
Makes two 9" crusts

2.5 cups all purpose flour (feel free to substitute some whole wheat flour)
2 sticks of cold butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
6-7 tablespoons water

Combine flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor (or just a bowl). Process for 30 seconds (or whisk to combine). Cut up butter and put it in the bowl. Process for 30 seconds (or use a pastry cutter or 2 forks to cut in butter) until mixture resembles corn meal. Slowly add in water and mix just until dough forms. Chill for 30 minutes or wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for later.