Never, Never Fail Pie Pastry

"For the first time in years, here is a pastry recipe I really like. The pastry needs to be worked with at room temp--if you refrigerate it for later, leave it out on the counter for a while to bring i..." See moret up to room temperature before rolling it out or it's not going to work easily. I used half lard and half shortening, also left out the vanilla as I don't care for it in pastry particularly. The vanilla might work well if making cream pies or similar, it was too much for me here. I suspect this recipe will work equally well with straight shortening, but it will change the texture somewhat. Nonetheless, this is a very tender pastry that is easy to roll out. It's even easy to fold over to get to the pie pan--I've not been able to do that with other pastry recipes I've had in the past, and I love it. And it can be rolled out thin as well, even better."

"Excellent recipe! The only change I made was that I substituted butter for the lard. It was so easy to roll out and it baked very nicely...." See more"

"This pastry really lived up to its name today. I made it exactly by the recipe. It was a bit sticky, but, after it was chilled, I decided to roll it out between waxed paper. Great idea, or so I tho..." See moreught. It rolled out beutifully, no tears, just perfect. However, it would not come off of the waxed paper. So, since I'm one not to be defeated, and because I didn't want to start again, I just scraped the dough off of the waxed paper, reshaped it, floured it and the board, and rolled it out again. It again rolled out beautifully. I'm thinking at this point that this mess will be the toughest worst pastry I've ever made, but I plowed ahead. I used it with Bev's Chocolate Pie from this site, so it wasn't blind baked, just baked right along with the pie. I gotta tell you, this, even after the torture I put it through, was the best pie pastry I've ever made. My nephew even said he liked the "crust" better than the pie, although he didn't have any problem "forcing down" two large pieces. Great recipe. Thanks much."