Best Pie Crust

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I think the very Best Pie Crust is a traditional shortcrust pastry. For all my sweet pies and savoury pies I always use my mother’s rich Shortcrust Pastry With Lard recipe. This recipe uses a combination of butter and lard and I’m convinced that this is what gives the pastry its unbeatable flakiness and delicate texture. If you want your pie to be vegetarian just use a vegetable shortening instead of lard.

Mini Cheese and Onion Pies on a blue patterned plate

Favourite Sweet Pies

Whole apple pie on a patterned tablecloth

The Best Apple Pie

For me this is the Best Apple Pie recipe because it uses the Best Pie Crust! That is of course my mother’s rich shortcrust pastry made with lard. I always like to bake this as she did on an old-fashioned enamel pie plate.

Sussex Pie with lattice pastry top and Sussex written in pastry letters

Sussex Pie

I was absolutely delighted to discover a few years ago that it has its own version of apple pie that seems to have almost been forgotten – see my version of the recipe.


Lemon meringue pie on a plate on table

Lemon Meringue Pie

This sweet treat is a little more effort to make than The Best Apple Pie but after eating a homemade Lemon Meringue Pie I predict that you will never buy a commercially made one again!


Savoury Pies

Whole Homity Pie with lattice pastry top

Homity Pie (British Vegetarian Pie)

Homity Pie is a traditional British vegetarian open pie with a filling of potatoes, onions and leeks and a cheesy topping. I have given it a new twist by adding a lattice cheese pastry top similar to the one I used on the Sussex Pie.

Cheese and Onion pies on a tray

Cheese and Onion Pies

My friend Margaret introduced me to Cheese and Onion Pies. She is from Hull and this is a northern speciality. She can remember her mother making Cheese and Onion Pies when she was a child during the 1940s.

Best Pie Crust (Shortcrust Pastry With Lard)
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Best Pie Crust (Shortcrust Pastry With Lard)

5.0 from 1 vote

Here are the ingredients and directions – see the full Shortcrust Pastry With Lard recipe page for more directions and process photographs.

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces / 110 grams cold butter

  • 2 ounces / 55 grams lard or solid vegetable fat

  • 8 ounces / 225 grams plain flour

  • 2-3 tablespoons cold water

Directions

  • Cut your fats into small pieces and mix with the flour. The butter should be cold but not straight out of the fridge. You can use lard/vegetable fat straight from the fridge.
  • Rub the fats into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
  • Mix to a dough with the cold water using a flat bladed knife until clumps form, then bring together using your hands.
  • I have an old bone handled flat bladed knife that belonged to my mother and I always use this when making pastry.
  • Rest in the fridge or a cool place for 30 minutes.
  • Use as needed in your recipe.