2025-06-13

• Place the water, butter, and lard in a saucepan, heat gently until a low boil..
• Place flour and salt into a large bowl, and whisk in the egg and oil.
• Add the melted fat mixture, and stir together with a wooden spoon, or cut in with knives. Make sure to scrape the bowl while combining the dough.
• Gently knead for 1-2 minutes. You should end with a greasy dough that's smooth and shiny.
• Form a ball, cover with clingwrap, and chill for an hour.
• Let the dough come to room temperature.
• Optional - save 1/3 for the top portion if the pie will be covered.
• Roll the big part to 13" diameter to make a 9" deep-dish pie, or 3 x 6.5" or 2 x 8" pies.
• Place the pie tin up-side down in the middle of the rolled-out dough, and cut a circle with an extra 2-3 inches past the pie tin.

Blind bake - aka pre-cooked crust

• After transferring the crust to your pie tin, make the edges pretty - see below for tips on transferring, and fluting ideas.
• To perfectly size the parchment paper, take a big piece, fold in half, then fold in half the long way, and then keep folding the short corners together while keeping the middle of the sheet to the side. You should end up with a triangle. Hold the tip of the triangle over the centre of the pie crust, and cut around the edge to the same length as the interior of the pie crust. When you unfold the parchment paper, it should magically be very close to a perfectly-sized circle. This is known as a cartouche. Some pedantic people might say it's not. They're wrong.
• Cover with parchment paper and add some pie weights or an identical pie tin and weigh it down with something like a ramekin. Bake until the edges are lightly browned, Anywhere from 7-15 minutes at 375F. This depends a lot on the moisture content, and the thickness of the crust.
• NOTE - if the edges are getting much darker than the middle, make a "pie shield" by loosely covering the edge with aluminum foil. 3 pieces about 2-3 inches wide is usually sufficient. This slows down the cooking on the edge.
• Remove from the oven, remove the parchment paper and weights, and then dock the base of the crust. This will let any steam escape so the crust doesn't bubble up.
• Bake at 375F for around 15 more minutes, or until the top of the pie is golden brown.

•  In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean to a boil over medium heat.
• Immediately turn off the heat and set aside.
• In a small bowl, whish the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of hot milk. This needs to be completely smooth.
• In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until no lumps remain.
• Whisk in the cornstarch slurry.
• Make sure there isn't a skin on the milk. If there is, pick it up with a fork and discard.
• Slowly whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot milk while whisking.
• Keep adding 1/4 cup of milk at a time while continuously whisking.
• Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the saucepan (make sure it's clean).
• CAUTION - NEXT STEP NEEDS A LOT OF ATTENTION
• Cook over medium heat, while whisking constantly, until *slightly thickened* and possibly slowly boiling. IF YOU SEE ANY LUMPS, IIMMEDIATELY remove from heat and whisk like mad. We do NOT want to make sweet scrambled eggs. If the custard has any lumps at this point, immediately add the butter, and 1/4 cup of milk, and keep whisking like mad until you get something silky smooth.
• Remove from heat, stir in the butter, and let cool at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before pouring into the crust. This will give the best presentation, but requires some planning.
• If you're saving the custard to use later, remove or stir in any skin that forms on top, cover with clingwrap so the entire surface is in contact with the filling. This prevents a skin from forming while it's chilling. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until ready to serve (max 24 hours). Since we're covering the custard (with slices of banana and/or whipped cream), it doesn't need to look pretty when it's scooped into the pie crust - just level it out as best as you can.