Gena's Pie Crust

This is my mom's recipe, which is enough for 5 pies. I give her original recipe, as well as my own version below which is good for just 1 pie if you don't need the full amount. Her recipe calls for lard but you can use vegetable shortening if you wish. I actually use my own home-rendered pork fat. Another fun thing to do is save up your bacon fat and use it, to get a wonderful bacon-flavoured pie crust!

• 5 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 4 tsp vinegar in
• 3/4 cup cold water (may need up to 1/4 cup more)
• 1 lb lard or shortening

For my version for 1 pie, I basically use 1/5 of all the ingredients, except the egg because it is difficult to get 1/5 of an egg. I just do without.

• 1 cup flour (I use whole wheat)
• just shy of 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• just shy of 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 pinch baking powder
• just shy of 1 tsp vinegar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
• 100ml lard or shortening

In both versions you basically just put everything except your water into your bowl and mix it. Then slowly add the water until you get the right amount. The exact amount of water will vary somewhat, so start with putting in the base amount, check the consistency, and then add more if required.

When rolling out pie crust you can roll it out on parchment or waxed paper to make it easy to peel up, or just put down some flour onto your surface.