Pie Crust

A bunch of my husband's grad school friends are getting together tomorrow afternoon to eat pie. Everyone is supposed to bring a pie, so I decided to bake mine this afternoon. Since I am making a filled pie with a lot of flavors, I figured I didn't have to do anything special for the crust. While I was at the grocery I grabbed a two-pack of Pillsbury frozen deep dish ready-to-bake crusts. I have used the Pillsbury crusts from the refrigerator section that you unroll, but this seemed even easier (and cheaper). I also wanted the disposable pie plate so I don't have to worry about bringing home my glass pie dish. As the pictures below show, these frozen crusts were a disaster! I only needed one, but after I followed the directions precisely and it came out cracked all over the place, I decided I better try again with the second crust. Horrible! I ended up breaking up those crusts into pieces and putting them in a freezer bag to be used for parfaits or ice cream topping. Then I washed out the disposable pie plates and made a from-scratch crust recipe that was billed as "no roll." It turned out MUCH better. I guess if you want something made right you really have to make it yourself!

Here is the beautiful homemade pie shell, baked and ready to be filled.
Here are the Pillsbury frozen disaster pie shells.
NO ROLL PIE CRUST

YIELD - 1 - 8" or 9" pie crust

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix dry ingredients together with a fork in a pie pan.

2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil and milk.

3. Mix with a fork until it is combined and makes a ball.

4. With your hands, flatten and press the dough into the pan and up the sides, fluting the edge.

5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes until golden.