The Go To Pie Crust

This is basically the same as the Sally's Baking Addiction Pie Crust^[1] but it's vegan so it's kind of a pain in the ass to manipulate. Earth balance makes it easier, but the flavor is less buttery than if you use something like Country Crock Plant Butter. I wouldn't bother with a higher end vegan butter like Miyoko's because it kind of gets lost. Save that for slopping on bread, you slob.

Given in weight because you really should be weighing your recipes.

Ingredients

• 315g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp Diamond kosher salt
• 6T (85g) Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks (the smaller you cut it up the faster you can incorporate it)
• 230g Crisco Vegetable Shortening (DO NOT portion this ahead of time - put it directly into the flour in step 2)
• 1/2 cup ice cold water

Steps

1. Whisk your flour and your salt together in a bowl.
2. Weigh directly into the flour the butter and the vegetable shortening. They're both greasy and soft and sticky and you'll lose a portion to your scoops / spoons / measuring tools, so if you put it directly into the flour you get it all in there... and you have less greasy dishes to clean.
3. Stir the bowl contents enough so that flour coats all the fat, then dump the bowl out onto a cleaning surface.
4. Using a fork or two forks or a bench knife or whatever you want, your fingers you mad lad, cut the butter / shortening combo into smaller pieces. You want something coarse and pebbly - some bigger chunks are okay.
5. Drizzle the water onto the dough and then stir until it clumps a bit and all the water is mixed in. There will be a lot of dry flour still - this is okay!
6. The odds are now against you. If you handle this too much with your hands, the heat will melt both the butter and shortening and turn you into a glistening mess. Using the bench knife and floured hands, you want to fold the dough onto itself. By folding, you're making layers of fat and flour that will result in a flaky pie crust. You can always add some more flour. Use the bench knife to scrape your surface to release stuck fat.
7. Once essentially all combined, some leftover chunks still okay, wrap it in plastic tightly and whack it into the freezer for a bit. The plant butters need the extra cold to really thicken up so you can roll this out easily.

References & Notes