Classic Double Pie Crust

Whisk together the flour and salt.

Add the shortening, working it in until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Cut the butter into small (about ½") cubes. Add the butter to the flour mixture, and work it in roughly with your fingers, a pastry cutter, or a mixer. Don't be too thorough; the mixture should be very uneven, with big chunks of butter in among the smaller ones. Add 4 tablespoons of water, and toss to combine.

Toss with enough additional water to make a chunky, fairly cohesive mixture. It should hold together when you gather it up and squeeze it in your hand.

Divide the dough in half, and gather each half into a rough disk. Smooth the disks; it's OK if they have a few cracks in the surface. Smooth the disks' edges by running them along a floured surface like a wheel.

Wrap in plastic, and chill for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Or wrap in aluminum foil over the plastic, and freeze for up to 2 months.

When you're ready to make pie, remove the crust from the refrigerator or freezer, leaving it wrapped. Allow it to thaw (if it's frozen) or warm a bit (if it's been chilled longer than 30 minutes), until it's softened enough to roll, but still feels cold to the touch.

Next, measure the bottom diameter, and up the sides of your pie pan. If your pan is 7" across the bottom, and 1 ½" up each side, that's a total of 10". This means you should roll your bottom crust to a diameter between 11" and 12", which gives you enough extra for crimping the edges.

Place the crust on a floured work surface; our silicone rolling mat is a fine choice. Roll it to the desired width. See the big chunks of butter? That's a good thing.

Place the crust in the pan by folding in quarters and placing in the pan. Or you can simply pick it up with a piecrust lifter, and move it that way.

For a single-crust pie, fold the edges of the crust under, and gently squeeze them together. Crimp as desired. It's nice to make a tall crimp, as the filling for a single-crust pie is usually fairly liquid (think pumpkin or custard), and it's good to have that tall "dam."

For a double-crust pie, leave the edges of the bottom crust as is (no folding or crimping). Once you've added the pie filling, roll out the top crust to the outside diameter of your pan, and place it atop the filling.

Trim excess crust with a pair of scissors, then press the two edges together. Crimp as desired. A simple fork crimp is fast and easy. At this point, it helps to return the pie to the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes; this chills the fat, which ultimately increases the crust's flakiness. Cut a hole in the center of the crust for steam to escape. Or slash the pie's top surface several times.

Brush with milk and sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar, if desired.

TIPS FROM OUR BAKERS Looking for a pie crust recipe that doesn't use shortening? Try our All-Butter Pie Crust. People get nervous about pie crust, and in their anxiety they tend to work the dough too much. Cutting the butter in too far makes a mealy crust. Kneading it too much and/or adding too much water toughens the dough, making it more difficult to roll out.

A tip for creating ultimate flakiness: When the dough is almost moist enough to hold together, pour the shaggy mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper. Use a spray bottle to moisten the dry parts of the dough without water-logging it. Then fold the dough over on itself, like a business letter. Repeat the process until all the dry bits of dough are evenly moistened. This will create lots of nice layers in the dough.

Be sure to use cold butter and ice water when making the crust; it helps keep the butter and shortening from dispersing throughout the dough, which in turn helps keep the crust flaky. Also, resting the dough in the refrigerator, both after mixing and rolling out, will dramatically increase the quality of your results. This "time out" both allows the gluten in the dough to relax (making the crust more tender), and firms up the fats in the dough (helping it stay flakier).

Lightly grease the pie plate with non-stick spray before putting in the bottom crust; this will make taking the slices out of the pan much easier later.

To keep the bottom crust from getting soggy, try brushing it with egg white and chilling before adding the filling. You can also use melted butter to create a barrier between the fillings moisture and the crust.

Can you make this crust ahead and freeze it? Absolutely. For a double-crust pie, make it up to the point where the two dough disks are wrapped in plastic and ready to chill; add an over-wrap of aluminum foil, and freeze for up to 2 months. For two single-crust pies, roll each chilled crust, and place in a metal pie pan. Trim, crimp, wrap the pans well in plastic, and freeze. Test kitchen tip: For an extra-tender crust, add an additional 1 tablespoon shortening to the recipe.

Our Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour makes it easy to make many of your favorite traditional recipes (like this one) gluten-free. Simply substitute Measure for Measure flour 1:1 for the flour called for in your recipe; no additional ingredients or other changes needed.