Grandma Ingrid’s Pie Dough
Makes two 9 inch pie crusts or one double crust pie
Ingredients
- 2½ cups of unbleached all-purpose flour (reserve 1 cup)
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 2 tablespoon of sugar
- 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) of cold butter, cut into ¼ inch slices
- ½ cup of cold vegetable shortening cut into 4 pieces
- ¼ cup of cold vodka
- ¼ cup of cold water
Directions
Process 1 ½ cups of flour, salt and sugar in a food processor until combined, about two one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Add remaining cup of flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Sprinkle vodka and water over the mixture. Mix until just forming dough with a few more pulses.
Dump it out onto a clean surface and push together to make one large ball. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.
Pot Pie Filling
Ingredients
- 2 cups of broth
- 3 tablespoons of cornstarch
- 5 cups of filling (leftover soup)
Directions
Using the leftover soup, drain liquid off soup using a sieve into a bowl. You want at least 5 cups of filling for a 9 – 10 inch pie plate. If you don’t have enough you can add leftover rice or cooked potatoes to your filling to make it have more. Take 2 cups of the cold broth that has been drained off of soup, add cornstarch and heat until thick on the stove or in the microwave. Pour cornstarch slurry over filing and mix well. Set aside or place in the fridge.
Assembling your pie
Roll out 1 disk of your pie crust to approx ¼ inch thick into a circle. Place the bottom crust in a pie plate and leave ½ inch overhang. Fill with filling. Roll out the top pie crust and place the crust on and trim and crimp. Brush with cream, milk, or egg wash and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Make small slits on top of the crust and bake.
Baking
Place the rack on the bottom position of the oven at 400℉. Place the cookie sheet in the oven as it preheats so it is nice and hot. This helps with browning of bottom crust. Bake on the cookie sheet for around 45 minutes until filling is 160℉ in the middle and the crust is golden brown. If the crust is getting to brown cover with foil to prevent burning.
Tips
You can also freeze leftover filling in ziplocks if you have extra.
Variations
You can use any kind of soup to fill your pies or if you want to make this vegetarian, you can mix vegetables, rice or potatoes together with a slurry of cornstarch and vegetable stock to use as a filling.
Part One: How to cut up and save a whole chicken
Part Two: Homemade Chicken Soup
Part Three: Chicken Pot Pie
