Great and EZ Homemade Pie Crust

I have a couple quick and EZ tips to help you make the best homemade pie crusts. What you'll need:

Tools: Pie tin (preferably glass), foil, wax paper

Ingredients:

3 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (keep 1/2 cup to spread on cutting board and over the top of dough so it won't stick to the rolling pin)
4 sticks of butter (32 tablespoons)
1/3 cup water
2 large eggs (reserve one just to brush over the top of the pie)

Mix ingredients together until thick and ball like. (Cut dough in half - one-half is for the top of the crust and one-half is for the bottom). Put a piece of wax paper on the cutting board, sprinkle some flour on the wax paper, roll out dough. Lift the wax paper and push the dough into the pie tin, carefully pull off the wax paper. Trim edges of dough to fit pie tin. Now repeat the process. Fill the pie with your pie filling and cover the top with the other half of the dough. Trim the edges with your kitchen scissors and pinch the edges together.

Tip Number 1: Use the aluminum foil. You'll need to wrap the edges of your pie so they don't burn. And, if your pie crust starts getting too brown, you can cover the entire top with foil to keep it from burning.

Tip Number 2: Roll your dough out on Wax Paper. That way you can flip the wax paper over on the pie pan and press it into place. You won't have any cracks or creases because the wax paper keeps the dough in place. Then simply trim the edges with a pair of kitchen scissors. Yep, that's right, I said kitchen scissors. I always have a pair handy.

Tip number 3: Pinch the edges of the dough to make whatever form/shape you want.

Tip number 4: Brush the top of the pie with an egg to give it a glistening, shimmering, glow to the dough.

Tip number 5: Never forget to pierce you pie so it can vent. Yep, that's right, we all need to vent, even our pies. :D

I made the holly out of leaf cookie cutters and a round hole cutter. I placed the pieces together to turn them into holly. But, you could use other cookie cutters to come up with decorative designs for the top of your pies.