Lemon Pie for One or Two or more!

The thing is.....I sort of get a "bug" about something an I carry it around until I act upon it or find a way to shake it.  Of late I have several "bugs" although I must add I am quite proud of myself for having gotten rid of several of the pests!!  Otherwise also known as projects or tasks waiting for action.

The one I speak of here is that when the whole family was home I often made pies and cakes and cookies and they were quickly devoured.  I found that if I had any pie pastry left after rolling my crusts it was very handy to roll it and cut it as saltine crackers and prick with a fork and bake the squares off in the oven for maybe 10-13 minutes at 375 degrees F.   Then I stored them in the freezer in zip loc bags and pulled them out with fresh strawberries and whipped topping to make individual strawberry pies as needed.

Nowadays, except on Sundays, it is usually just the two of us and it occurred to me that I needed to pull out this practice once again.  But this time use a biscuit cutter forming discs of pastry and using all sorts of filling thus having the ability to serve pie for one or two at the drop of a hat in lots of flavors.

My favorite pastry recipe makes enough for 5 single crusts and freezes well.  My bug was to make up a batch and make one crust into discs and dock and bake them off.  So today after I picked tomatoes and started the laundry I did just that!

To make the pastry:
Combine 4 C. all purpose flour (I use King Arthur),  1 1/2 C. butter and shortening (today I used 1/2 C. butter and 1 C. Crisco),  1 T. sugar, and 2 t. salt in processor pulsing until grainy with small and medium lumps.  Using a glass measure I put 1/4 C. crushed ice in the bottom of the cup to which I add enough water to make 1/2 C.  Then I add 1 T. vinegar and 1 egg  to the water and beat it all together.  By the time I am ready to add this to the flour mixture the ice is usually melted.  I pulse the processor and add the liquid until it starts forming a ball.  Stop and dump it onto waxed paper and form a ball.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes.  Remove from the refrigerator and divide into 5 portions and form each into a disk.  Wrap what you are not using today in saran or waxed paper and store in a zip loc bag in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

I rolled out a portion.  Cut it with my biscuit cutter and pricked them.  I laid them out on parchment paper and baked them at 375 degrees F for about 12 minutes.

Then I just prepared lemon curd and stacked the pastry discs then lemon then pastry then lemon and ending with whipped cream.  I stored the remaining pastry disks in the freezer and plan to use them making  peach pie for two later this week.