Betty's Stir & Roll Pie Crust

This is an old recipe (1955 Life Magazine). Betty used to make this for her family - her son Mike remembers how fantastic the crust was and suggested it be shared on CC Palate. Today’s flour does not necessarily need sifting to get all the bits of mill stone and other impurities, nor does it need refining for texture. Lightly fluff up the flour with a wooden spoon or whisk to aerate – easy if you store your flour in a wide mouth container. Then keep a light hand with a spoon while adding flour to the measuring cup and level with a flat knife. If you like to sift, then do so! It won't hurt this delicious crust.

The nutrition facts were made at Calorie Count!

Original Recipe from 1955 Life Magazine

Betty’s Stir & Roll Pie Crust

Ingredients:

2 cups sifted (if you want) all-purpose flour

1 t of baking powder

1 t salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil (the original said use Wesson Oil)

1/4 cup cold milk

cooking spray

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients together flour, salt and baking powder.  

Measure the liquids - oil and milk by pouring them into another container without stirring it (a two cup Pyrex measuring cup would be perfect).  Make a well in the flour.  Pour the liquid in all at once and stir gently with a fork only until most of the flour is moistened. Do not over stir.

For a two-crust pie or two pie shells:  cut dough in half.  Press each half into a ball.

Place the halves between two pieces of wax paper and roll out one ball with a rolling pin. Keep the dough between wax paper to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin. Hold the pie pan over the rolled out dough to make sure it is big enough. You want the dough to be larger than the pan by about ½-1 inch all around. Don't get ridiculous about it, you just need some hanging over the edge for "fluting".

Spray the pie pan with cooking spray.

Carefully peel off the top wax paper (the dough is a bit sticky compared to dough made with shortening).  Flip it over onto the pie pan and remove the bottom piece of wax paper.  Press down lightly to shape to the pan. Don't fuss the tears and thin spots - the dough is moist and easily amended with a bit taken from the overhanging edges.

Add filling of your choice. 

Roll out the other crust. Apply to the top and crimp edges to seal with your fingers – create “ridges” of dough that poke up between your fingers. Make a few slices with a sharp knife in the top crust to allow the steam to escape during baking. Place strips of aluminum foil over the fluted edge to prevent over browning.

A fun thing to do is to cut shapes such as leaves (see the pic from Life Magazine) out of the second crust and apply them artistically to the top of the filling. If you do that, just crimp the bottom crust. No need to slice for steam vents.

Bake according to your pie filling directions.