pie crust

Now that pie-making season is upon us, the pie crust recipe from the Williams Sonoma pies cookbook, with my additions in italics. This is for a 9-inch double-crust pie, but makes a lot of extra crust.

2 1/4 cups - 11 1/2 oz - 360 g plain (all-purpose) flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup - 6 oz - 180 g shortening (I use unsalted butter.)
6-7 tablespoons cold water, more or less (I use more. A lot more. Nearly a cup, sometimes.)

Obviously, it's important to use measurements of the same kind, since the amounts aren't equivalent.

Instructions:
Buy a pastry blender. One of the best kitchen investments I've ever made.
Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl and toss together. Drop in the shortening. With your fingers, two knives, or a pastry blender, blend the ingredients together until you have a mixture of tiny, irregular flakes and bits about the size of coarse bread crumbs. Sprinkle on the water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing with a fork after each addition. Add just enough water for the dough to form a rough mass.
I suspect that using more water enables me to work the pastry less with my hands, which makes it flakier in the end.
Pat the dough into one or two cakes. The recipe says that you don't need to refrigerate it, but I always do. It also says that if you want, you can wrap it in film and keep it in the fridge for up to two days. I find that pies take about an hour to bake.

I have another recipe which says that brushing the bottom layer with egg white before adding the filling keeps it dry, but I've never tried that.