Janet Horner was kind enough to give me permission to use her mother-in-law's pie pastry recipe. I was fortunate to get this recipe many years ago and I had made a number of delicious pies. However, I lost the recipe and wasn't able to make a successful pie crust for some time. Recently, I was able to re-acquire the recipe and my wife and daughter have enjoyed many pies this past winter. Janet told me that "Eleanor made more pies than any woman in Dufferin County. Because she could make a wonderful pie, she even received a marriage proposal one night when we were out catering."
I have modified the recipe slightly by reducing the salt by 1/4 tsp and by using apple cider vinegar instead of regular vinegar.
This pastry dough works equally well for pies, tarts or galettes. I have also used this pastry for chicken pot pie.
I roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. I have never been successful with rolling out dough on the counter top
I sprinkle the bottom piece of parchment with flour before setting the dough on it
I sprinkle the top of the dough generously with flour before covering it with the top piece of parchment.
I roll out the dough from the center, rotating the whole thing 1/8 of a turn each time until my pie pan can sit in the middle with a generous overlap all the way around.
I peel off the top piece of parchment paper and sprinkle the dough surface very lightly with flour. Then I replace the top parchment.
I flip the whole thing over and peel off the top parchment paper. I bring the rolling pin close to the pie crust and drape a good amount of it over the rolling pin. I hold the dough on the rolling pin and pull away the bottom piece of parchment paper. I then drape the pie crust over the pie plate, settle it and cut away the excess.