Marguerites Cookbook

A cooking blog all about making vintage recipes from a cookbook we inherited from our grandmother

Perfect Pie Crust

pie crust header

Happy Pie Month! To kick off this month of delicious desserts, we’re going to start with the basics. According to many people in our family, the best part of Marguerite’s pies were the crust. While there was not a handwritten recipe anywhere in the cookbook, Aaron’s mom was able to give us the low-down.

Perfect Pie Crust

Marguerite used a basic Crisco pie crust recipe. Aaron’s mom, Mercedes, is a bit of an expert on this crust. She tried to make pies with Marguerite and similar to Marguerite’s many times. A difficult task, because Marguerite said the best crust was one that you didn’t handle too much. Mercedes confessed it was something she was never great at. We think we aren’t quite there yet either, but with the amount of pie’s we’ll be making on this blog, we are hopeful we can get there someday! We already covered it a while ago with our Cranberry Cherry Pie, but we think it’s worth giving it it’s own post.

Cranberry Cherry pie and slice

Aforementioned Cranberry Cherry Pie, made with this crust

Some of the pies in this month will not be made with Marguerite’s perfect pie crust. We’re trying to balance out some of the more “traditional pies” with some unique ones; many of which don’t involve a traditional crust. Just for ease, we’ll also be using a few pre-made pie crusts in place of this crust as well.

That being said, Marguerite’s perfect pie crust is something we enjoy making, because it is one of the things she made best that everyone remembers. So keep an eye out during Pie Month for this crust!

Check out the recipe below and enjoy Marguerite’s Cookbook’s Pie Month!

Perfect Pie Crust
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Perfect Pie Crust
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: pie crust
Instructions
  1. Blend flour and salt in large bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture using pasty blender or fork. Stir in just enough water with fork until dough holds together.
  2. TIP Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.
  3. Shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball into a 1/2 inch round disk.
  4. Chill for 30 minutes or up to two days.
  5. Roll dough from center outward into a circle 2 inches wider than pie plate on lightly floured surface. Transfer dough to pie plate.
Share this Recipe
 
Powered byWP Ultimate Recipe

Cranberry Cherry Pie

Cranberry Cherry Pie

This Cranberry Cherry Pie is the perfect pairing to any Thanksgiving dinner. We made this recipe twice: the first time for Aaron’s family on Thanksgiving and the second time just for the two of us to enjoy.

Cranberry Cherry Pie

This will also be the first of many dessert recipes here on Marguerite’s Cookbook.  Dessert recipes were the most popular in Marguerite’s collection and the cookbook is about 50% desserts. Her pies were one of the best desserts to have, because she was so good at hand making pie crust.  For as long as Aaron can remember, his mother and other members of their family always talked about how no one could make pie crust like Marguerite.  When Marguerite tried to teach Aaron’s mom how to perfect the pie crust, the main advice she gave was “touch the dough as little as possible.”

Here is what the original recipe said:

Cranberry Cherry Pie Original

First to tackle was the crust itself, the previously mentioned hardest part.  Marguerite used a standard Crisco pie crust recipe, which we have included below.  When we made it the first time for Thankgiving, the family commented that the cranberry and cherry filling, along with the topping, tasted delicious.  Aaron’s mom, who was the best one to judge the crust, said that while it was good, it was not as soft and flakey as Marguerite’s.

Darn.

We attributed this to over handling the crust, as well as not putting enough water in it.  We also over baked the pie because there were no baking instructions on Marguerite’s recipe.  We were determined to get it right, so we tried it again.

Cranberry Cherry Pie

Despite being advised to, we didn’t chill the Crisco the second time. This seemed to make it much easier to play with the crust less. More water was also added.

In both attempts we omitted the Tapioca pudding from her recipe because neither of us care for it and we decided that it wouldn’t negatively affect the recipe to skip it.

Slice of Cranberry Cherry Pie

The other challenge with this recipe: Marguerite left no instructions on how long to bake the pie and at what temperature! For the first attempt we baked it for too long.  The second time turned out much better!

Cranberry Cherry pie and slice

I’m not a huge fan of pie, so I only sampled a small amount. Not the worst pie I’ve ever tried though.

Aaron loved it, despite not being a huge fan of cranberries.

Slice of PieWe hope you attempt this recipe for your next holiday to share with your family!

 

Cranberry Cherry Pie
Cranberry Cherry pie and slice
Cranberry Cherry Pie
Print Recipe
A berry pie recipe with a crumble topping
Servings Prep Time
1 Pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 Pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 30 minutes
Cranberry Cherry pie and slice
Cranberry Cherry Pie
Print Recipe
A berry pie recipe with a crumble topping
Servings Prep Time
1 Pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 Pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 30 minutes
Ingredients
Crust
Pie Filling
Topping
Servings: Pie
Instructions
Crust
  1. Blend flour and salt in large bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture using pastry blender or fork. Stir in just enough water with fork until dough holds together.
  2. TIP Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.
  3. Shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball into a 1/2 inch round disk.
  4. Chill for 30 minutes or up to two days.
  5. Roll dough from center outward into a circle 2-inches wider than pie plate on lightly floured surface. Transfer dough to pie plate.
Filling and Topping
  1. Mix the cherry pie filling, cranberry sauce, sugar, and lemon juice.
  2. Pour the filling mixture into the crust.
  3. Dot with margarine
  4. Mix the flour, sugar, brown sugar, and margarine for the topping with a blender.
  5. Sprinkle the topping on top of the pie.
  6. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes
Share this Recipe
Powered byWP Ultimate Recipe