Lance's Cranberry Creations & Millie's Pie Crust

Millie writes:

Lance is in charge of the all-important cranberry dishes for our Thanksgiving celebration. Here are 3 of his closely-guarded recipes.

Thanksgiving Cranberries:

Cranberry-Orange Relish

12 oz bag of cranberries
1 orange, cut on each axis (8 pieces)
1 cup sugar
Dump into food processor and pulse until chunks are small.  Chill and serve.

Whole Cranberry Sauce

12 oz bag of cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Dump into sauce pan.  Boil and stir gently for 10 minutes.  Chill and serve.

Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Open the can.  Serve.

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Mollie writes:

I triple double dare Millie!!!!!!!
Ok, I just don't do pie crust.  But there, in the blog, was a recipe for pumpkin pie that sounds WONDERFUL.

So I dare you, share your recipe for pie crust.  You make a good one, sister, and mine usually taste like pffsst.

Millie writes:

A-haha! My last two attempts at pie crust have been total disasters; I think kitchen humidity plays a part here, just as it does in bread making. When that happens I use pre-made dough from the grocery store – the kind you just unfold and use to line the pie plate.

I usually just use the regular pie crust recipe out of the old red-and-white Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Sometimes I add cinnamon or nutmeg to the flour:

Plain Pastry

For a 1-crust pie:

1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoons salt
2/3 cup shortening
5 to 7 tablespoons cold water

Stir flour and salt together. Cut in shortening until the individual bits are the size of small peas (use a fork or a pastry cutter for this). Sprinkle the water a spoonful at a time onto the mixture and toss it all (the recipe says to use a fork but I use my hands). Repeat until the dough will hold together in a ball.

Flatten the ball and roll it out using a lightly-floured rolling pin on a lightly-floured surface. Roll from the center to the edges, flipping the crust occasionally. When it's as big as you want it, fold it in half and move it to the pie plate; unfold it, press it into place and decorate the edge as desired. (I usually have to do some cut-and-paste because mine never rolls out into a uniform circle.)

The secret seems to be using absolutely ice-cold water and adding only as much as you need to make the dough hold together.