Judy Fisher's No-Fail Pie Crust (and the Apple Pie That Goes In It)

The Crust — for a 10-Inch Pie

• 2¼ cups white unbleached flour
• 1¾ cups butter-flavored Crisco
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Cold water — "enough to make like stiff pudding"

That is more shortening than most printed crusts call for. It's also why this one bakes up short and tender instead of tough. Don't trim it back.

The Apple Filling

• 5 full cups peeled, sliced apples (5–6 medium apples, about 2 lb)
• 1½ to 2 cups white sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 chunks of butter, for the top of the apples
• A little milk, for the top crust

Use the low end of the sugar with sweeter apples like Golden Delicious or Jonagold, the high end for an all–Granny Smith pie.

Crumb Top (Instead of a Solid Top)

• 1½ cups flour
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• ⅓ cup white sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1½ sticks chilled unsalted butter

Blend, sprinkle over the apples, bake the same. This is the apple crumb pie version — one bottom crust and no second round to roll.

Making the Crust

1. Blend the flour, Crisco, and salt with a pastry blender, by hand, until the whole bowl is crumbs.
2. Take out half of the crumbs and set them aside.
3. To the half still in the bowl, add enough cold water to make it "like stiff pudding" — a thick paste, not a dough.
4. Add the dry crumbs back in and mix the wet and dry together until it holds.
5. Divide in half. Put down flour, roll one half into a circle, and lay it in a 10-inch metal pie tin. The other half is the top.

Filling and Baking

1. Peel and slice apples to make five full cups.
2. Add the sugar and the two tablespoons of flour, shake the teaspoon of cinnamon over the top, and toss it all together.
3. Pour into the pie shell. Put three chunks of butter on top of the apples.
4. Roll the second half of the dough into a circle and lay it over the apples. Press the dough all around the edge and cut off the extra crust.
5. Dot some milk on top.
6. Bake at 425°F on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes, then turn down to 350°F for 45 minutes.

Note: the card doesn't mention vents. A few slits in the top crust before it goes in never hurt.

Why It Doesn't Fail

Steps 2 and 3 are the whole trick. Most crust recipes say "add ice water a tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together," and that sentence is where pies go wrong. Too little water and the dough cracks when you roll it. Too much water, or too much mixing to fix the cracks, and the flour develops gluten and the crust bakes up tough.

Judy's method takes the guessing out. Half the crumbs get fully wet, into a paste — there's no measuring water because the target is a texture you can see. The other half never touches water directly, so those crumbs stay coated in shortening and bake into the flaky part. Fold the two together and you have a dough that rolls without splitting and bakes tender. It's the same idea behind the old "never fail" shortening crusts, and it's why one handwritten page can be handed to someone who has never made a pie.

Two more details on the card that earn their keep: the metal tin, which heats faster than glass and browns the bottom crust, and the cookie sheet underneath, which catches anything that bubbles over and gives the tin a flat, even surface to sit on. The milk on top is what turns the crust the color you're picturing.

Which Fisher's Apples to Put In It

Five cups is about five or six medium apples — roughly two pounds. The classic split is Granny Smith for structure and tartness with Golden Delicious for sweetness and aroma — both September apples here, weather permitting. Jonagold holds its shape and keeps its flavor bright in the oven, and it peaks mid-to-late September. If you love Macoun, blend it with something firmer — on its own it cooks down soft. Later in the season, Braeburn and Pink Lady both make a sharper, firmer pie. The full rundown is on our best apples for pie guide.

An 8-quart bag from the orchard is $14 and runs about 10–12 pounds — five or six of these pies, or one pie and a week of lunches. Check what's picking now before you drive out so you know which varieties you can fill the bag with.

Pick Friday, Bake Saturday

Fisher's Fruit Farm is at 467 Euler Rd in Brockport, about 25 minutes west of Rochester, open Friday through Sunday, 9 to 5, through apple season. Walk the rows, fill a bag with a tart apple and a sweet one, and you have the filling for this pie before you're back at the car. The crust takes one bowl and no ice-water guesswork. The card has done the rest of the thinking for you.

If you make it, send us a photo on Facebook. We'd like to see how it comes out.