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brittle as opposed to tender. The absolute easiest product to work with is lard, and it produces a crust with unrivaled texture. While Southern cooks swear by it, others find it has a distinct flavor not to everyone’s liking.

3. The liquid can be water, fruit juice, even white wine or beer. (Try embellishments like ground nuts, grated lemon or orange peel, sugar, baking powder or spices can be added for flavor and texture.)

Proportions
One cup of sifted flour to 1/3 cup of fat moistened with three tablespoons of liquid are the ideal proportions for a tender flakey crust that neither resists nor disintegrates when confronted with a fork. Too much fat makes a crumbly almost oily tasting crust while too little fat or too much flour results in a tough cardboard imitation of a good crust. Too much liquid makes tough, sticky dough, too little makes dry dough that is virtually impossible to roll or work with. I have found that while the ratio of flour to fat never varies, the amount of liquid can. It may be a consequence of ambient or ingredient temperatures, humidity, or the brand of flour, sometimes a little more or little less liquid is required.

Blending and Rolling Perfect Pie Crust
Blending three such disparate ingredients as flour, fat and water into homogenous and workable dough may seem difficult. It is actually pretty simple stuff. Use your fingertips to rub the fat into the flour until looks like small corn flakes. Then use the back of a large fork to mash the liquid slowly into that mixture until it clumps together and can be patted into a fat disc. Alternately the food processor can do the mixing for you. With either technique it is essential the fat be cut in small pieces and well chilled the liquid used should be ice cold as well. Patience is the key. Trust me on this, if the proportions are correct your pie crust will not only go together well it roll out beautifully.

While I admit that effortlessly rolling out and shaping perfect pies may take a little practice it is certainly not brain surgery. Most important- the dough should be shaped into a nice flat round disc and chilled thoroughly before rolling. Use a shaker to evenly sprinkle flour over the work surface and on the rolling pin. Roll from the center in every direction once, slide your hands under the dough, make a quarter turn clockwise, and keep repeating the process until the dough is one inch larger than the pie pan. Slide the pastry onto a floured cookie sheet and refrigerate. Do the same thing for top crust.

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