This is a great one-size-fits-all pie crust. It’s also vegan and very inexpensive. However, my mother taught to make this: it’s difficult to teach without first-person contact. We’ll try that here.

Pie crust (8-9” diameter)

Ingredients

• Two large sheets of wax paper
• 1 cup and 2 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2-3 tbsp. water

Directions

• Mix dry ingredients and oil together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Slowly pour in about a tablespoon of water. Mix it well with a fork, scraping the dry ingredients off the side of the bowl. Repeat with another tablespoon of water.
• At this point, the consistency of the mix depends on the atmosphere: my mother never makes this crust on a moist day unless she absolutely needs to. At the very end of the mix, the ingredients should form into a crumble, into balls the size of lint balls or cornmeal.
• This is the most important step. You want the crust to be thin, dry and flaky. If you add too much water, the mix will turn smooth and your crust will turn out hard and not flaky at all. If you add too little water, your crust won’t hold. Err on the side of less water.
• Pour out the mix onto one of the wax sheets and gather it into a ball in the middle. Put the second one over the top. Roll out with a rolling pin or press by hand until it’s flat and 8 or 9 inches in diameter. Take the top sheet off. Flip the crust into a baking pan. Fill with pie.