Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

One of our family’s favorite treats is homemade snack size fruit pie.  I make the pies like a large empanada.  They are very easy to make and once you do, you will wonder why you ever bought the ones from a store!  These have a very light and flaky crust that makes the store bought, name brand ones taste stale!

My favorite piecrust recipe is the Refrigerator Pie Crust Mix.  Here is the version that I use.

6 cups flour

1 Tbsp. Salt

4 tsp. Sugar

2 ½ cups shortening

Mix the flour, salt & sugar together.  Cut in the shortening to make a mixture that resembles cornmeal.  Store in a container in the refrigerator.  This mix is enough to make 3 double crust pies.

For a single crust, use 1 ¼ cups of the mix, ½ tsp. Lemon juice and 2-3 Tbsp. water

When mixing the piecrust dough, you use only enough water to make the mixture stick together.  I also like to keep all the ingredients cold and work the dough as little as possible.  This will also help to give you a flaky crust.

*For a double crust pie, use 2 ½ cups mix, 1 tsp. Lemon juice, and 3-5 Tbsp. water.

To make the fruit snack pies, I roll out the piecrust and cut out a circle about 6” diameter.  Using your favorite fruit pie filling, spoon about 2 Tbsp. of filling into the center of the crust.  Fold the crust in half and seal the edges, dampening the edge with a little water if necessary to help seal the dough.  Place the pies on a baking sheet and bake at 350* F. for about 15 minutes.  If you want a little extra sweetening, you can sprinkle a bit of sugar on the pies before baking.

Enjoy!