Perfect Oil Pastry

Total Time: 15 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 dash salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (corn is the tastiest)
• 5 tablespoons cold tap water (exactly 5!)

Recipe

• 1 measure the flour carefully and put it in a medium-sized bowl. add the dash of salt and stir it with a fork.
• 2 pour the oil in and stir and "cut" it with a fork until you've got clumps varying between pea-sized and lima bean-sized.
• 3 distribute the cold water over the mixture and stir and mash with the fork just until it all balls together.
• 4 wipe your countertop with a damp cloth and spread a piece of wax paper on it. the paper should not slide -- if it does, dampen the counter a little more.
• 5 form a little more than half of the dough into a disk and place it on the wax paper. cover it with another piece of wax paper.
• 6 roll the dough with a rolling pin from the center out in all directions, keeping it as circular as possible.
• 7 periodically do the following:.
• 8 peel off the top piece of wax paper, then lay it gently back on top of the crust.
• 9 using the bottom piece to lift it, turn the crust over, peel off that piece of wax paper, lay it back down again and continue rolling.
• 10 continue the peel-replace-flip-peel-replace technique until your crust is about two inches bigger than your pie pan. important: peel-replace-flip-peel -- then use the bottom piece of paper to lift the crust and place it over your pie pan. gently peel off the wax paper.
• 11 use the same technique to roll the top crust.
• 12 as you prefer, you can leave the top crust whole, cut it into strips for lattice, or whatever.
• 13 optional: brush the top crust with milk and/or sprinkle it with sugar.
• 14 bake according to your pie directions.
• 15 bon appetit!