Easy Pie Crust for Beginners

• Mix butter and cream cheese together by hand.
  1/3 cup butter

  2½ ounces cream cheese
• With a pastry cutter or a fork, cut in 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup at a time.
  1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap to refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling.
• Roll dough out into 1/8 inch thickness and press into a baking pie pan. Trim away any excess but save and use excess to cut into 1/2 inch strips and press onto edges. This will help prevent pie dough 'shrinkage' during bake. Return to refrigerator for 30 minutes before baking.

Par-bake or Full Blind Bake Instructions

• For recipes requiring a pie crust to par-bake before adding filling and returning to the oven, once pie dough has been rolled and shaped into into pie pan, chill 30 minutes.
• To prevent 'pie shell shrinkage', any extra dough cut to shape into pie pan, can be added to to the pie edges to thicken the crust and prevent sliding during par-bake.
• For a partial blind bake, set oven to 375 degrees and line pie crust with parchment paper. Fill bottom of pie-crust with pie weights or dried beans.
• Bake for 7-8 minutes or until crust edges are slightly browned. Allow to cool to warm a few minutes before adding fillings such as quiches.
• For a full blind bake such as a no-bake pies, Bake 15 minutes, remove parchment paper and pie weights and stab bottom of pie a few times with a fork. Return to oven another 15 minutes until golden brown.