Wanted: Good Pie Crust Recipe - Instructions for Dummies a Must!

Ok, some of you may recall earlier posts where I discuss the making of pumpkin pie.  I have even posted my pie recipe about a year ago.  Something I've been struggling with, however, is the making of a really good pie crust to go along with the pumpkin pie.

I've explored various pie crust options that I've found online, and they are all pretty much variations on a theme:

3:2:1 ratios of flour : fat : water - give or take.

Without fail they require me to freeze the butter (I'm only interested in butter-based crusts because I don't care for transfats... I've been avoiding them  since before it became chic, you know, back when they were simply called "hydrogenated oils").  After I freeze the butter, I'm supposed to mix it all up in a food processor.  Great, if I had a food processor that actually worked.  I don't.  But I do have a lovely pastry blender that works fine.  I blend and blend and add bit by bit of water until the butter is the size of peas, and the dough just clumps together.  Yay.  So far it sounds perfect.

Then they tell me, "Wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes-overnight."

Seriously?  Overnight?  30 minutes I can do.  Usually I can even wait a couple of hours.  So I wait as long as I can, generally 2-3 hours.

Without fail, however, the dough will not stick to itself as I try rolling it out.  It's obviously not watered enough, even though I followed the instructions exactly, and it matched the description I was given in the recipe I was following.  So I end up having to add water.  That leads to an awful mess, dough that ends up over-kneaded, and ultimately, sub-par flavor.

I'm *this* close [picture forefinger about to touch thumb] to calling it quits on the home-made pie-crust ideal, and start buying Pillsbury. Please, somebody, save me from the fate of buying ready-made, industrial-strength pie crusts!

Pumpkin Pie, 11 Months Overdue

Last Thanksgiving I promised my pumpkin pie recipe but never got around to providing it. There were a number of reasons for that. One is that the pies I was making that day turned out… well… not overly edible; and I was a little embarrassed and didn’t think it would be prudent to provide a recipe that wasn’t any good.

In all honesty, the recipe is good, it was the cooking that wasn’t so great. So I’ve had to tweak the cooking temperature and time trying to find the best combination. As of last night, I am now confident enough to share.

You can download the recipe here, but watch the pie as it gets close to the end of the cooking time. Different ovens provide very different results. My in-law’s electric oven cooks the pie nearly perfectly at 375º in 55-60 minutes. My gas oven bakes the pies about as well at 350º for just over an hour.

I am working on an ideal pie crust to go with this pie, but so far I’ve only been able to make adequate crusts, nothing fantastic. Certainly nothing worthy of posting online. So if you don’t have your own pie crust recipe, you can find a bunch online, or buy a pre-made shell at the supermarket. Homemade is usually going to be better, however.