In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, the vanilla and the salt together and set aside.

Place the cold butter, lard and flour mixture in the bowl of a food processor and pulse till mixture resembles crumbs. Do not over mix. Otherwise you can place all in a bowl and cut using a pastry cutter (as in the picture to the side).

Add the water and pulse again (or mix by hand, using the fingertips) until the mixture gets together and forms a small ball. Do not over mix.

Blind bake in a preheated oven (375F, 200C) for about 15 minutes. Remove the beans and the parchment paper, return to the oven, and bake until the shell is light brown and baked through, about 10 minutes longer. Set aside to cool. The final baking is carried out only for single crust pies/tarts that will be filled with a filling that requires no further cooking. Otherwise you will fill the pie/tart right after removing the baking weights and carry out as instructed in your recipe.

Tips for guaranteed shell success

The ideal crust has to be light, tender and flaky. It should never be tough, hard to work with or rubbery.

To ensure best results, follow these guidelines and you are guaranteed to achieve success every time.

 

• Traditionally crust is made using lard. The use of lard results in super flaky crust, but too much lard can have a strong taste, that offsets the whole flavour. Therefore, butter is used along side a little lard in order to achieve best results without the strong flavour of lard. If you are not into lard, you can use vegetable shortening instead. With that said, shortening is not a very healthy option; therefore and if you are still uncomfortable you can go for an all butter crust, but since butter is high in water content and has a low melting point, the dough made of 100% butter is harder to work with than that made with some lard or shortening. Also the use of all butter results in a softer, dryer and crumblier crust. For best Results use a mixture of butter and lard.
• The ingredients have to be used cold, not at room temperature. Using warm ingredients results in a tough finished product. Use ice water instead of room temperature water, and use cold butter and lard instead of room temp. Rest the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling.
• Ideally while making the crust the fat should remain visible in little lumps. That is why we pulse, use finger tips or use a pastry cutter, and never process continuously. The crumbs resulting from the pulsing are actually little separated lumps of fat that clung to the rest of the ingredients. Friction produces heat, so a continuous processing causes friction, which in turn produces heat and softens the fat as it gets warmer. The soft fat will result in it blending into the flour instead of remaining in separate pieces leading to a dough that is hard to work with and which turns out non-flaky after baking.
• Never knead a short crust, or a flaky crust. Kneading transfers heat from your hands to the dough, which softens and melts the fats. Instead gently bring the dough together (minimal handling) using the fingertips.
• The flakiness of dough depends immensely on the flour to fat ratio. The more flour is used the harder the dough becomes, the tougher and harder the overall outcome is. Therefore follow the recipe precisely, and use minimal amount of flour when rolling the dough. I find that rolling the dough between two sheets of parchment paper is the best way to exclude the addition of any extra flour.
• Finally if you have scraps of dough, you must handle them as you would puff pastry scraps. Never knead them, instead layer them on top of each other and roll them out.

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