This recipe gets 5 stars from me not for taste, but rather simplicity and ease of use. It's also amazingly easy to remember. Scaled down (one pie crust) it's 1:1/2:1/4, 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup shortening, 1/4 cup water. I found that you only end up needing 1/4 cup water. Then of course the 1/4 tsp salt. The "Grandma's Secret Pie Crust" tastes marginally better, but I'm a bigger fan of quick and easy. Besides, the focus in a recipe for me isn't the crust. The trick is to add the water little by little while mixing, and stop when your dough clumps together. Too much water will lead to a clumpy mess. Refrigeration isn't necessary. Also, cutting in the shortening with a pastry mixer is much easier. A pastry mixer is much like a potato masher, only it has 4-6 wires that cut through the shortening. With a back and forth motion, you end up with small granules quickly. I found one for $1 in a dollar store. Well worth the investment. This pie crust recipe works very well with pies or tarts (I had fantastic results with the English Butter Tarts recipe on this website).

Reviewed On: May 22, 2003

Don't let the fact that there is no butter in these tarts, or the "English" slant disuade you from trying this recipe. My shot at this came out perfect first crack. I cut back the raisins because 3/4 of a cup seemed like a lot. Next time, I'll follow the recipe. For a good tart shell I used "Best Pie Crust Ever" and cut circles with a plastic funnel. The tarts turned out tasting homemade and yummy. Some things are worth making yourself if the effort isn't too high, it doesn't take too long, and you get better than store-bought results. These tarts are a great example of this. Thanks, Priscilla, I'm hanging on to this recipe.

Reviewed On: May 22, 2003

Not a bad recipe. I substituted the milk and honey with orange juice. Then I left the bananas out. Also, the nutmeg was a tinge too strong so I left that out too. I found I didn't need to blend the mixture. MMMMMM nothing like orange juice! heheh Seriously, what works well with this recipe is an ounce of Kaluah. Can you tell I've already had a glass?

Reviewed On: May 20, 2003