Sweet Treat Friday – Pat- In A- Pan Pie Crust

I know you’ve most likely heard from someone making pie crust is simple, and the easiest you’ll ever try. Or this recipe won’t fail you, well I’ve failed every single pie crust out there. I make pie a LOT, seriously, a lot.     
  It’s easy to mess a pie crust up, even following every direction to the “T” and still you may end up getting a crust that is either crumbly or is too dry. From where I stand going through all my mistakes (trust me I make them a lot) the only thing you can fall back on , is how it feels. Just like bread dough. I do have a trick up my sleeve though. A pie crust  that honestly doesn’t give me trouble, it’s called  Pat-A Pan Pie crust. This recipe was given to me by a friend who hates to bake but her mother bakes alot. I know I’ve heard the recipe name before, but until she showed me the name it didn’t realy click. I know a couple people who use this, where it started, I’m not sure.
I use this crust throughout the year, but during the Holiday season is comes in handy, because there’s no chilling the dough, no rolling and I don’t think  I’ve ever messed it up yet.
So easy the kids can do it, no joke!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cold milk
Directions

Place the flour, sugar, and salt and mix in a pie plate (yup, right in the pan) Mix it up with your fingers until evenly blended. In a measuring cup combine the oil and milk and beat it till creamy. Pour the milk and oil mixture over the flour mixture. Mix with fork until the flour mixture is completely moistened. Pat the the dough with your fingers, first up the sides and then out in the pan on the bottom. Flute the edge if you’d like.

 This is not a pie crust to be used on top of any pie, it is solely a single shell crust. If you are preparing it to fill and need a “pre-baked” shell, preheat the oven at 425F and prick the surface of the pastry with a fork. Back about 15 minutes or until slightly browned. If the recipe calls for no pre-baked shell simply fill with your filling and follow pie directions for cooking.

Some tips-
Work this dough out evenly in the pie pan, it may not look like much, but it really does cover a 9 inch pan, you need to just work it up the edges carefully and then pat the rest out.
 I find once in a great while it looks too moist after I’ve patted the dough down. Simply take a paper towel and lay it on the pie crust to get the extra moisture out.

That’s really all there is to it, I use this for the holidays and it is a wonderful short cut to all the other roll out pie crusts out there. It’s flaky, and tastes great as well. 🙂
 What are you waiting for? Go make some pie!