mmm… pie

Resistance is futile. That’s been my experience, anyway. Eventually, thoughts of lemon meringue pie got the best of me and I had to make one.

Several times lately I’ve heard people comment on how difficult it is to make pie crust, and I have to disagree. I’m not a fussy baker, and there are lots of things I find too time consuming, but pie is, well, not hard.

There are lots of rules about making pie crust – you should use very cold unsalted butter, you should use pastry knives, everything must be chilled – and it may be that these guidelines lead to a better pie, but I tend to be a casual pie maker, and so far no one has complained. The only hard and fast rule I follow is to handle the dough as little as possible after you add the water. If you overmix at that point, you get shoe leather. Here’s my very easy pie crust recipe:

1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. butter
2 Tbsp. water (w/ 1 ice cube)

I start by dicing the butter and using my hands to crumble it with the flour and salt. Once it’s roughly blended – like the 3rd image, above – I sprinkle in just enough water for it to hold together in a ball. If I have time, I chill it a bit, and then roll it out.

Easy.

The recipe I used called for pie weights, so I used some rice I keep in the freezer for this. I usually skip that step, but then every once in a while my crust gets kind of misshapen, so I guess it’s a good idea. I used a lemon meringue pie recipe from epicurious.com.