My Grandma will be 93 this year. She is one of those people that everyone loves. Her attitude is just...good...all the time. I really wanted to describe her personality more fully in this post, but I found that I struggled to convey how awesome she is without sounding cliche. But there are a couple of things about her (other than her pie crust recipe) that stand out to me so much that I'm going to put them here.
Warning. Religion talk ahead! Proceed at your own risk or scroll to the bottom if you just want the pie crust recipe already!
If you who want to know more about Grandma, here are the top two things that impress me about her:
1. Faith. She's the best Christian I know. That sounds so weird and I feel like I need to explain that a bit since the word "Christian" might mean different things to different people. To me, a Christian is a Jesus-follower, someone who believes that Jesus is who he said he is, and therefore accepts his gift of love and grace. And in turn, a Christian pours that love and grace out into the world, just as Jesus did for them and asks them to do for others. My Grandma is totally that person. It's easy to talk about "loving everyone," but what does that really look like? My grandma loves by sacrificing herself to serve other people. She isn't judgmental or self-righteous or exclusive. Even when I wasn't a Christian, I thought , "if I was going to be a Christian, I'd want to be one like her."
2. Marriage. While it was apparent that my late Grandpa loved my Grandma very much, he was also gruff and could be really grumpy. He would scoff at things she said or be condescending toward her in front of people. Her reaction? She'd chuckle. Not in a passive-aggressive, manipulative, or even embarrassed way. She'd just kind of giggle, like she was amused. In response to things that would leave many of us fuming, defensive and eventually closed off and resentful, she'd laugh, and let his humiliating words or cruel tone just hang there unanswered, and then, move on. I don't know if she cultivated that response or if it came to her naturally. I also don't know if she responded differently when she wasn't in front of her grandkids, or if she ever confronted him about how he spoke to her. I suspect she might have. In any case, I remember it impressed me even as a kid.
Oops, religion and marriage got into my recipe post. Back to pie crust.
My understanding is that my Grandma doesn't really love to cook. Nevertheless, her pie crust recipe is the best! It totally lives up to its "never-fail, extra-flaky" name. The original recipe calls for shortening, but I use butter. It would be interesting to try it with one of the vegan, non-hydrogenated shortenings, so if you do that, let me know!
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Mini quiches with this crust |
Makes 3 9 or 10-inch crusts. I usually make the whole recipe and freeze 1 or 2 balls of dough to use later.
Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cold unsalted butter* (see recipe notes)
1 1/2 tsp salt* (see notes)
1 beaten egg
1 Tbs vinegar
up to 5 Tbs carbonated water (seltzer)
I recommend making this in the food processor because it's so easy that way. Otherwise, a pastry cutter or fork should do.
Cut the butter into 1-inch chunks and place in food processor with the flour and salt. Blend until the butter is in chunks no larger than a pea. Blend in the egg and the vinegar. Add the seltzer water 1 Tbs at a time until the dough can be easily squished together into a ball- for me this is usually only 2-3 Tbs.
Divide the dough into 3 equal parts, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least a half hour before rolling it out. Roll out on a floured surface.
*Notes
If you are using salted butter, reduce salt to 1/2 tsp
Happy pie-eating!
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