With thanksgiving right around the corner, I have been doing a lot a pie making prep work this week. Basically, I am getting my pie crust ready and refrigerated to be used for a variety of pies next week. I made the mistake of telling my friends how much I loved making pie and my willingness to make them for thanksgiving - I ended up with 11 (plus 1) requests for pie.

Why am I not freaking out, you ask ? Well it's because of my pre work this week and this super easy pie crust recipe. Yesterday, I got all of my crust ready to go, it has been refrigerated and next week, I will be filling them up with delicious apples, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and a very non traditional thanksgiving pie - a banana cream pie. This should be fun.

So - here is what you need to know about getting the best pie crust at home

Make sure your ingredients (butter and shortening) are cold
Do not over mix the dough
Let it rest for at least half an hour in the fridge
Take your time rolling out the dough

If you forget any of the tips - make sure you remember this one - cold, refrigerate, cold, refrigerate. I start up cutting up my butter - Then it goes back to the fridge while I get my flour, sugar and salt together.

What you need

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cold unsalted butter (12 Tablespoon)
1/3 cold vegetable shortening
1 cup of cold water
Teaspoon of salt
Tablespoon of sugar

How To

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add cold shortening and cubed butter. Using your finger, work the butter into the flour. Do this quickly and gently. You want to do this until the butter pieces are about pea sized.

Make a well in the butter and flour mixture and pour 1/4 cup of cold water. Use your hands to bring the dough together. If dough is still seperated, add in another 1/4 cup of cold water and bring dough together. You want to be able to form a ball with the dough.You should be able to get two dough balls from the mixture.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap or put in a zip lock bake and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or until ready to use). The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to one week.

After 30 minutes or when you are ready for pie, roll out the dough on a floured surface and place into the pie pan. Add filing of choice and bake.

This recipe makes two 9 inch round pies.

Now that you have the dough down right, it's time to fill it with something. I am making a brown butter apple pie for thanksgiving (recipe will be on tablewithaviewblog on Monday). You can als try this bourbon pecan pie with dark chocolate; sweet cherry pie with amaretto whipped cream; pumpkin cream pie.