Rich Flaky Pastry 

This is the best pastry recipe I found years ago and the only one I use for just about everything. I have made meat pies with it, squares, butter tarts and pretty much every type of pie you can think of.

Rich Flaky Pastry:

2 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon of sugar

1/4 cup of lard

1/2 cup of butter

About 9 tablespoons of ice-cold water

Stir flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together. Cut in lard and butter with pastry blender (or 2 butter knives) until mixture is crumbly. Add water, a little at the time, using just enough to bind mixture so that dough can be patted lightly to form a ball. Handle as little as possible. Roll out as required:

For single shell pie – use 1/2 dough for each single shell. Arrange undercrust in pie plate. Prick pastry well all over with a fork. Bake at 450F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool before adding cooked filling.

For double crust pies – use 1/2 the dough for bottom crust and the other half for either solid upper crust or cut into strips to make lattice top crust.

Don’t forget to check out all recipes I have posted using this crust and if you use it for something other and are pleased with it, please send it to me – I will gladly post it!