Lion House Pie Crust Recipe

1/4 Cup Butter
1/3 Cup lard
1/4 Cup margarine
1/3 Cup shortening
1 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 TBS nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 cups pastry flour
1 1/2 cups Bread flour
1/2 cups plus 1 TBS cold water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixer, cream together butter, lard, margarine and shortening. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, baking powder, salt and dry milk powder; add to creamed butter mixture and mix briefly. Add pastry flour and beat until blended. Add bread flour and mix slightly. Pour in water and beat again just until water is blended.

Divide dough into two or three balls. Roll out each ball on a floured board. Line pie pan with dough and cut off excess dough. Flute edges. Bake at 375 for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Otherwise, fill unbaked pie shell and bake according to recipe. Makes 2 to 3 9 inch pie shells. You can substitute 3 cups all purpose flour for the pastry and bread flour called for in the recipe.

My mom bought me the Lion House Bakery cookbook for Christmas. It came with a DVD which Rachel and I watched and we got really excited about the pie crust - especially the fats used in it. This is the most flakey crust I have ever had. It is so easy to work with. I mix the whole thing with my hands and then refrigerate it a little before rolling out and I did use all-purpose flour. A+++++ Pie crust.