What if I don't have a food processer to turn my dough?

Question

trying to get the crust to be flakey and thick without it being hard.

Answer 1

What RancerC told you is all good, but he still didn't say HOW to blend the pastry. There are tools you can buy to cut shortening into the flour, but you don't really need it. I cut the shortening into small pieces, then take a fork in each hand and make cross "cuts" -- your cutting the shortening into smaller pieces while blending with the dry ingredients. Keep doing that until you reach the stage that Rancher described. Then pat it all together into a flattish ball, and chill again. Then you're ready to roll it out.

Answer 2

The Secret & Trick of Great Pie Crust

The secret to all great pie crusts lies in the fat. So your first question is, “Which fat do I use?” Your best choices are:
1) Shortening
2) Lard
3) Butter

Shortening is usually the best choice for a few reasons. It’s inexpensive, it’s very forgiving of minor goofs and it gives a great texture when used for crusts. Shortening gained a bad reputation in recent years for its trans-fat content; recently though Crisco was reformulated so that it contained 0 grams of trans-fat.
Lard was the first choice through most of the early days of baking. Lard gives a tender dough and makes a moist crust. Negatives for lard now include availability; refined lard is harder to come by these days. The finest grade of lard, leaf lard, must be special ordered. The second is the idea that it is lard – most Americans now find the idea of lard distasteful.
Butter gives good color and flavor to the crust but it will not give as high a rise. Also unless you use good European butter the crust will not be as tender. The down side to butter is its cholesterol content and it’s not as forgiving as either lard or shortening.

The trick to great pie crust is following the rules. What are the rules?
1) Keep the equipment as cold as possible. Doing this will keep the fat in a semi-solid state throughout the crust; this guarantees that you get a flaky crust.
2) Do not make the dough too fine or even. The fat should not be evenly dispersed throughout the crust; there need to be large pieces (the size of a large pea) to provide layers to the crust and smaller pieces to keep the crust moist and tender.

Answer 3

Never made a pie in my life, but I used to watch an expert, my aunt, work the dough from the outside inward until she had the feel she desired. Whatever that feel was only she could tell and every crust be it for apple, blueberry, peach ,pumpkin or mince was a work of perfection. No crust was ever soggy, thick ,undercooked and always flakey. Too bad Mrs. Smith didn't perfect the art of piemaking.

Answer 4

I never heard of a food processor making dough, I just figured the old fashion way has always worked, roll by hand

Answer 5

do it by hand, thats what I do