Pastry Crust

Ingredients (single crust)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces and frozen for 20 minutes)
• ½ cup all purpose or whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
(use up to 2 tbsp for a sweet crust)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 5-6 tablespoons cold low-fat milk (more, if needed)


Directions
1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a food processor or bowl. Pour the oil and butter in and pulse until you've got pea-sized clumps of butter (you can also do this by cutting the oil and butter in with a fork). A light touch is important here and you want clumps of fat, which is what makes the crust flaky - the final blending will happen during rolling.
2. Distribute the milk over the mixture and pulse until it just begins to form a ball (again, use a light touch). It should just stick together if you squeeze a piece between your fingers, but not crumble apart. The mixture should still look crumbly.
3. Decant the loose dough onto a floured surface and lightly form a round disk using the back of your hands, so as not to melt the butter.
4. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour to hydrate the bran and let the dough relax. This will make it easier to roll, prevent shrinkage during baking, and make a more tender crust.
5. To roll, flour surface and rolling pin. Let the dough rest at room temperature for five minutes. Roll center out and don’t roll over the edges, turning ¼ turn each few rolls until it is 1/8” thick. Check your pan to make sure the crust is big enough to fit in shell and hang over the edges. It may crack on the edges when rolling - just smoosh it back together.
6. Roll onto rolling pin and into pan – brush away excess flour as you roll onto pin.
7. Pack it in to the pan nicely, but don’t stretch it or it will shrink during baking. Flute by pushing finger of opposite hand between two mid-finger knuckles, or use fork tines.
9. To prevent a soggy bottom blind-bake the crust: cut a square of foil about 4 inches larger than pie plate. Line crust with foil. Fill with dried beans or uncooked rice. Bake in a 425°F oven for 10 minutes or until set. Remove from oven. Gently remove foil lining and beans. Prick all over lightly with a fork, return crust to oven and bake 5 minutes or until very light brown.
10. Cool completely before filling, then bake as directed according to recipe.
NOTE: Because this pastry dough is made with oil, it must be used right away. After a day in the refrigerator, the oil will start to separate and seep out.