The trick to flaky pie crust - and a huckleberry pie story

Have you ever forgotten something that you knew so well you didn't even have to think about it?

That happened to me a few years ago. I don't bake pie very often any more - that's the excuse I gave myself for forgetting. And that's why my pie crusts started turning out "heavy."

I couldn't figure it out - I was using the same recipe that I'd used forever, and yet getting results I didn't like at all. Then one day a friend served me a piece of pie and her crust was wonderful - light and flaky. So I mentioned my recent failures at pie crust.

Her response? "Are you remembering to use ice water?"

Well, no. I had completely forgotten about ice water. Since then I'm back to making good pie crust.

Here's the simple recipe I use:
2 cups of flour
salt - I never measure it, sorry!
3/4 cup of shortening

Using a dough cutter (or a couple of knives if you don't have one) cut the flour, salt, and shortening together until you have pea-sized lumps.

Now add 1/4 cup of ice water and mix it just until it sticks together. Do NOT over mix.

Divide the dough in two - this is for a pie with a top crust.

Flour your rolling board well so the dough won't stick when you begin to roll it out. Sprinkle a little flour on top and spread it around so the rolling pin won't stick either. Don't roll it any more than you have to or your crust will be heavy in spite of the ice water.

A friend of mine who grew up with 4 older sisters (and thus didn't learn to cook) told me the story of her first huckleberry pie. She was a newlywed and her husband expressed a desire for huckleberry pie.

Having no idea how to make one, she asked an older friend. The friend told her to just mix some lard and flour and roll it out, then add huckleberries and sugar and bake it. (This happened in about 1934, when most people still used lard.)

Her friend didn't tell her about the water, or cornstarch to thicken the berries, and she didn't have a rolling pin. So she kept adding more lard and mixed and mixed trying to make the mess stick together. Finally she patted it all into place in the bottom of a pie tin. Then she put in huckleberries and sugar and put it in the oven.

And her poor husband ate it. When he told the story later he said "it tasted like huckleberries boiled in oil, but I was a new husband so I ate the damned stuff."

Later on she became known for her wonderful pies...