All-Shortening Pie Crust
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Serves: 20
 
For taste-testing purposed, I turned this dough into cookies, but you could also use it to line a 9-inch pie crust. Try brushing the cookies with water and sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar before baking!
Ingredients
  • 155g (or 1¼ cup) all-purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon table salt
  • 113g (or ½ cup) cold vegetable shortening
  • 2-4 tablespoons of ice water
Instructions
  1. Combine the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Stir together with a fork until combined.
  2. Add the cold shortening Toss with the flour, then use a pastry cutter to work the shortening into the flour mixture. You want the shortening to become somewhat incorporated but the mixture should still look crumbly, with pea to hazelnut sized pieces of shortening in it.
  3. Once the shortening has been worked into the flour, add two tablespoons of water and stir with a rubber spatula. Use it to press the dough against the sides of the bowl. If the dough doesn’t clump together, add another tablespoon of water until it comes together in big clumps.
  4. Using your hands, quickly press the dough into a flat disc. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and leave to chill in the fridge for one hour. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 175°C/350°F and line a cookie sheet with baking parchment.
  5. Once the dough has properly chilled, roll it out between two sheets of baking parchment to a thickness of about 5-mm (or one fifth of an inch).
  6. Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookie shapes (mine were about 5-cm/2-inches in diameter), place the cookies onto the lined cookie sheet and bake in the middle of the oven for about 15-18 minutes, or until slightly browned.
Recipe by The Tough Cookie at https://thetoughcookie.com/2014/05/12/all-shortening-pie-crust/