I love trying new recipes-especially ones from Appalachia. A few weeks ago, I came across a recipe for Kentucky Pie. I decided to give the pie a try-since I had a store bought pie crust in the freezer.
After I had my hopes up about making the pie-I discovered I didn’t have any pie shells. That discovery sent me on a search for an easy pie crust recipe that promised to turn out good.
I learned how to make the best ever flaky pie crust at the John C. Campbell Folk School-but it’s quite a process-and with supper only an hour away I needed an instant gratification pie crust.
As I did a quick google search I ran across a pie crust recipe with vinegar as one of the ingredients. The recipe jogged my memory-and I recalled hearing someone say the crust was really great.
I was already in the mixing stage of the recipe before I realized it made 3 crusts-and encouraged freezing them for future use.
To make 3 pie crusts you need:
- 1 1/2 cup crisco
- 3 cups plain flour (all purpose)
- 1 whole egg
- 5 tablespoons of cold water
- 1 tablespoon of white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Mix crisco and flour with a pastry cutter until the mixture is like coarse crumbs.
Add a well beaten egg to the flour mixture along with 5 tablespoons of cold water, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir until well mixed.
Divide the dough into 3 even portions. Using additional flour-shape each crust into a circular disk. If you don’t need your dough right away-place the discs individually in freezer bags and store in the freezer. (allow frozen pie crusts to thaw for 15-20 minutes before rolling out)
If you plan to use your pie crust immediately-let it chill in the freezer for 15 minutes before hand. Use additional flour as needed as you roll out the crust.
The crust was perfect-flaky, crisp, and tasty. The pie-not so much-it was so sweet it would crack your teeth open! You could go eat a spoonful of brown sugar and get pretty much the same result without all the trouble.
I was disappointed in the pie-but decided the flop was worth discovering the easy peasy flaky tasty pie crust in the process.
Come back in a day or so and I’ll tell you how the frozen pie crusts worked out.
Tipper
Tipper, I always loved my maternal
grandmother’s chocolate and butterscotch cream pies. She was an all-around great cook. She and my grandfather lived in a very small community in the Appalachian area of East TN called Hoop Creek. They were so isolated that a « rolling store » (a store in an old school bus) came through weekly. They grew or raised most of their food but did buy a few items like coffee from the rolling store or they traded chickens or eggs for what they needed when no cash was available. I have my grandmother’s recipes (what she called « receipts ») for her cream pies. The one for the chocolate pie sounds almost exactly like your Aunt Faye’s. I think it’s interesting that their recipes call for both flour and corn starch. I don’t see that in newer recipes.
Her butterscotch recipe calls for flour only – 7 tablespoons- and 3 tablespoons of water and brown sugar, of course, and butter. Butter is not included for the chocolate although newer recipes do
include butter. Thanks for sending me on this walk down memory lane.
Just a quick question about the pie dish you used. Yours looks to be a deep dish of some kind, not your typical pie pan that a store bought crust would fit in. Can you tell me a little about the one you’re using? Thank you. Love your channel.
Lou Ann-so glad you enjoy our videos 🙂 The pie dish is a 9 inch regular pie dish-not deep dish. I’ve used store bought crusts in it and they work well too 🙂
Dan-you only bake the pie shell-and the meringue if you use it. The chocolate pie filling sets up on its on without baking : )
Never mind as Roseannadanna said. I found it on the chocolate pie page
I don’t see the baking instruction for the oven temp?
The apple pie you served us would be hard to beat!
Small world Tipper. This is the same pie crust recipie I’ve been using for the last 35 years or so. I love it when things make the circles.
Theresa
I’ve tried to make pie crusts for years, even using recipes a former Sister-in-law called no fail – and failing! I’m going to try this one with hope because we love pies, this one doesn’t have sugar so you could use it for a sweet or savory pie, and because as a diabetic, it’s easy to find ways to make a pie with Splenda without compromising the science that puts it together like one can do with a cake.
God bless.
RB
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Mamaw Hardin and Momma Dot, both my grandmommas made their pies in a deep casserole dishes and my lordy there were no finer. I have been trying to replicate the crust to their pies for many many years and it still eludes me…
It was layered and very crusty and most certainly buttery and had a nutty flavor to it…
She would go out to her apple tree and pick what she needed and man was that waiting suffering us lol.
We would go up into Burgers and Kings Mountains to pick the black & raspberries and let me tell ya something little sisters, there was no lying about eating the filling, for the evidence was all over us fer sure 🙂
Are going to bake this Wednesday for my Grand Daughters, it looks mighty good it does…
That sounds like an interesting discovery for pie crust. I will keep it in mind the next time I make a pie, especially an apple one. Fresh strawberry is my absolute favorite; the apple being second. Glad you had partial success.
Tipper,
Nothing like a good pie crust. I wonder why one couldn’t use regular apple cider vinegar? If it is just the color, or the percentage of the acid! If the color, most of the crust would be hidden under the fillin’! All those chemistry type cooks could tell us the reason, I suppose!
Is that the pecanless pie you made?
It is so pretty here today! Just right for making pie crusts. The crusts I bought for my Strawberry pie recipe from your post, were pitifull and of course I broke it while it was frozen…The pie was wonderful and is sure like the one my Mother made years ago. Now I have a good recipe to go with that Strawberry pie recipe,
Thanks Tipper,
PS…I wonder if one could use the same ingredients, except, use blackberries, and grape jello in place of the Strawberry jello and see what happens…I would probably crush my blackberries a bit…if it doesn’t work I can always go back to the reliable cobbler recipe! Just seems like a blackberry pie would be good with that flakey crust!
Tipper,
That pie crust looks great! I’m
more of a cobbler person cause I
can’t wait till my wild black-
berries come in. When I do make
a pie, I like the graham cracker
type already fixed at the grocery
store.
Yesterday between showers I sprayed my beans with liquid Fish Fertilizer
and I can almost hear them boogers
a growin’ today…Ken
This looks like a recipe I used many years ago, but quit because mine called for lard. It was the best, I will try it again since yu are using crisco.
I like easy! The pie looks a little like a runny pecan pie without the pecans. Probably runny because of so much sugar.
I like to try new recipes, but you truly never know what you’ll get unless the new recipe comes from someone you know to be a good cook.
I used to try recipes from the newspaper or a magazine. I gave it up as a lost cause, 90% of the time they were terrible.
I like those community cookbooks, like the one you all gave me for Mothers Day. They come from real people and are usually good.
It sounds simple enough and I’ve never been good at making them.Like you, the store bought ones have always worked, when I’ve remembered to buy them.Will have to try this one.
Thank you! I think people have forgotten about homemade pie crusts. Most of our mothers and grandmothers didn’t have written crust recipes.