For Easter this year, I took sweet tea and pecan pies to a friend’s home full of Minnesota born folks. For the record, people in the upper mid-west love sugar too. I have been using a crust recipe that I love but the last time I made it, I somehow ended up with less dough. I decided to make two pies just in case (you always need a backup pie) so I searched for a pie recipe that yielded enough dough for two crusts. Ina Garten’s Perfect Pie Crust Recipe made the best crusts! They stayed together, tasted great, and I believe I have found my new favorite crust recipe. I made a few alternations.

If you are not using Pyrex or glass pie plates you can disregard Direction #6 and you only need 9 tablespoons or 1 1/4 sticks of butter.

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread or 1 1/2 sticks of Butter divided
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
• 6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water

Directions

1. If you use stick butter, dice 1 1/4 sticks of butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.
2. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix.
3. Add the butter (9 tablespoons or 1 1/4 sticks) and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball.
4. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured surface into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board.
6. Use the remaining butter (3 tablespoons or 1/4 stick) to coat the pie plates.
7. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan.

Yields: 2 Pie Crusts (I had enough for one 9.5-inch deep dish pie plate and one 9.5-inch pie plate)