1. Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir together. Remove ¼ cup flour/salt mixture and set aside in a small bowl.
2. Add the shortening to the large bowl and cut in with two knives or a pastry cutter until shortening in pea-sized. Make sure NOT to handle with your hands until step 4. The heat from your hands will make the pie crust tough. Over-mixing will do the same thing, so be careful to set aside your perfection tendencies and mix as little as possible.
3. Add the ice water to the small bowl you set aside with the flour/salt mixture. Stir together to make a paste. Add the paste to the large bowl and stir together with a spoon until it comes together.
4. Flour the counter and rolling pin well. Using your hands quickly form into dough into a ball.

5. Place on floured counter and roll out just slightly. Tuck the ends under to make a smooth disk (this step is not necessary but will add to the “pretty” factor of your pies).

6. Roll dough into a 13 to 14-inch circle. Fold dough in half and place into the pie pan.

7. Trim edge to hang about 1-inch over the pie pan (I love using kitchen shears for this).

Single crust pies with baked fillings:

1. If you are baking a single crust pie (like pumpkin) tuck the overhang halfway under itself along the edges of the pie pan. Crimp around the edges as desired. Fill with the filling, then bake according to the recipe for the pie you are making.

Single crust pies for blind baking:

1. If you are making a cool filling that does not need to be baked (like lemon or a pudding type pie) you will want to blind bake the pie and cool it completely before filling it. To do this, tuck the overhang halfway under itself along the edges of the pie pan and crimp around the edges as desired.
2. Prick the bottom and sides with a fork so they don’t bubble up while baking. Then cover pie crust with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Before baking, remove the plastic wrap and gently cover completely with tin foil (the cheap kind works best –not heavy duty). Push the tin foil gently into all the crevices of the pie and fill completely with pie weights (I use dry beans). Place pie pan on a foil-lined baking sheet to catch the fat drips. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 45-50 minutes. For best results, rotate pan part way through baking time for an evenly browned crust.

Double crust pies:

1. If you are making a double crust pie, put the filling in the bottom pie shell. Then follow steps 4 through 7 again for the second crust (making sure you double the recipe in the first three steps, i.e. you would remove twice the amount of flour for the paste). Both the top and bottom crusts will then hang over the edges about 1-inch. Then fold the top crust over the bottom crust halfway around the edges. Crimp around the edges as desired. Then bake according to the recipe for the pie you are making. You can also get fancy and make things like lattice or decorative crusts, but those are beyond the scope of this post.