The Perfect Pie Crust

When I was a little girl I helped my mom make lots of pie crusts. She was no fool, she'd put me to work. Before I knew it I was making several batches of piecrust that my mom would freeze & use later (no doubt when I wasn't available to make them!). I can't blame her & actually I thank her for showing me that it really isn't that difficult & makes a world of difference when you're actually eating the pie.  In a pinch I've definitely used the store bought dough but if I have the time I make this pie crust.

I found Giada's recipe for pie crust in her crostata with dried apricots & taleggio that I've made a couple of times but what I really love is the crust!!! So I use this recipe for most pies that I make since first finding the recipe. What I really liked about this recipe is that it doesn't call for crisco. Exactly, what is crisco? That white goopy stuff that you can keep in your pantry probably forever without it going bad. Yeah not exactly what I want hanging around in my body.  This recipe calls for marscapone cheese - hello cheese! can't go wrong with that!  Marscapone cheese is kind of like a buttery Italian cream cheese. It's a delicious fatty spread & is leaps & bounds more yummy than crisco in my book. 




PS: Happy Birthday to one of my favorite ladies ever, SUZIE! Love & miss you ;) Cheers to a fabulous day & year! xx

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup cold mascarpone cheese
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons ice water

Make it!

1. Add the flour, salt, and sugar to a food processor and pulse to combine.
2. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is finely chopped and the mixture resembles coarse meal.
3. Add the mascarpone cheese and lemon juice and pulse a few times.
4. Add the ice water and run the machine just until the mixture is moist and crumbly, but does not form a ball.
5. Do not overmix.
6. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Press into a disk, cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. I like to use two pieces of plastic wrap to roll my dough out, as to not add too much more flour into it.  This also makes it easier to transport to your pie dish.
8. Rustic is pretty chic so if you want to just flop your crust over the edge after you fill your pie, go for it. Sometimes I just pinch the dough around the edge of my pie dish and then press a fork into it to make a pretty pattern like my mom used to do.