Perfect pie crust

In all my days baking I haven't made many pies...I've made a few apple pies, a frozen cool whip pie, zucchini pie, and this peach one with fresh peaches from Carter Mountain: 

Still bubbly hot from the oven!

All of the pies were made with Pillsbury's refrigerated pie crusts.  So convenient!  But not necessarily something you can write down in your recipe book and pass down, right?

So I was definitely excited to take another class with Jo at Miller Farms - "Pies...pies that make me smile!"  Jo had breakfast ready for us when we got there:  Mexican quiche, cheese, and some fruit...hit the spot!

During the class, she showed us how to make the Mexican quiche, a lemon ice box pie, and blueberry pie using crusts she had already prepared, and then showed us how to make the crusts from scratch.

I didn't feel much like making a pie today using one of the recipes we brought home, but I did make a batch of pie crusts (recipe makes 5) to freeze so I'm prepared when I am in the pie-baking mood. :)

Here's Jo's "Perfect Pie Crust" recipe:

• Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups unsifted all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups Crisco - she recommends not using oil, lard, margarine, or Crisco w/butter)
• 1/2 cup very cold water
• 1 tbsp. white or cider vinegar
• 1 large egg
• Procedure:
• Combine sugar, salt, and flour thoroughly with a whisk or pastry blender:     
• Add Crisco and cut into the dry ingredients (with pastry blender) until clumps are the size of peas:

• In a separate bowl, combine the water, vinegar and egg
• Combine dry and wet ingredients until moistened:

• Divide dough into 5 portions and with hands, shape each portion into a flat round disk ready for rolling:

• Wrap each in  plastic wrap:

• Chill for at least 1/2 hour before rolling.  When ready to roll, lightly flour both sides of disk and roll from center to 1/8 inch thick

Since I'm not making any pies today, I stacked my 5 crusts and put them in the fridge to chill them.  Once they're cool I'll wrap each one again and then put them all in a freezer bag, where they'll be until 24 hours before I want to make a pie...whenever that is :)

You'll notice that my cuts weren't exactly even - Jo said if that happens it's better to use the big ones for the top crusts