anybody want to post a recipe for the pie crust?
2 C flour
12-16 oz fat*
1 T sugar
1 T corn meal
pinch salt
1/4 C ice water
Assemble all but that last in the Cuisinart and mix dustily. Pour in ice water and hold down the mixy button till it all suddenly coheres into a ball. Split the ball in two, wrap each in Saran Wrap, and allow to rest no less than 1/2 hour. (You can freeze them nicely.) Unwrap, roll, and make pie.
(Baking us usually 10 minutes at 425, turn down immediately to 350, bake till the fruit is cooked, which for apples is another 3o minutes.)
* The fat content is where the foofaraw is, for me. I vacillate between all-butter (just shy of 2 sticks), which is harder to work but tastes so awesome, and 75% butter, 25% Crisco, which is much easier to work. I never go below 50% butterfat content, and lately I've taken to using unsalted butter, and frozen it before using. That's yielded my best results so far.
I have never tried a lard or leaf-lard crust, although this winter I am planning on it.