Homemade Pie Crust

Every Sunday we have a lunch fellowship at our church.  We sign up to bring a main dish, side, dessert, or drink.  Since I hadn’t brought a dessert for a while, I signed up to bring Peanut Butter pie last week.  I decided to save a little bit of money on the store bought pie crusts, and attempt to make my own.

I have always been scared of doing much with pastries, especially pies.  Growing up my mom always bought the crusts in the store.  And let me confirm, it is definitely easier that way!  However, making my own crust wasn’t as hard as I anticipated it being.  {Those of you are are expert bakers like my friend Erika can stop reading here!)

I used a basic recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  The actual mixing was very simple.  I was a little concerned about getting it rolled out in a circle.

I used two “tricks” that I read recently.  First, I rolled my crust out between two pieces of wax paper.  This made the rolling part very easy, and I ended up with two nice circles!  I peeled one piece of wax paper off the crust, and then turned it upside down into the pie dish.  After it was in place, I removed the other piece of paper.  Easy-peasy!  I think this tip was from a magazine.

The other tip was in my cookbook.  I lined my uncooked crust with foil before placing it in the oven.  This allowed my crust to cook nicely without over browning.  I removed the foil about 5 minutes before the crust was to be done so that it could turn golden brown.

Here are the completed crusts {no laughs please}

And here is my mom’s recipe for super-easy peanut butter pie.  Actually, neither of us could find our recipes, so I had to call…{gasp} my brother to get the recipe!  Yes, Kenny is famous for this peanut butter pie in the mountains of North Carolina!

Peanut Butter Pie (makes 2)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. peanut butter
2 boxes instant vanilla pie filling/pudding
Whipped cream
2 pie crusts, baked & cooled

Directions:
Mix powdered sugar and peanut butter so that it forms a crumb mixture.  Spread a generous layer of peanut butter mixture in the bottom of each pie crust.  Pour one box of vanilla pie filling into each pie.  Refrigerate a couple of hours to allow pie filling to set.  Spread with whipped cream and sprinkle with remaining peanut butter mixture.  Enjoy!