Simple Pie Crust

Cream together margarine and sugar.

Add the egg and beat, then the flour and baking powder.
Knead until you get a nice ball of dough. There is no need to add any more liquid; if you don’t get the consistency of a dough, you need to just keep kneading (by hand always works best for me) until the margarine gets well incorporated. That usually lends a smoother texture to the dough.

You can freeze the dough raw for later use, or bake it with whatever recipe you’re using. My mother sometimes will bake it in a pie dish and freeze it until she makes something like custard pie, or lemon meringue or the like and then she’ll have the shell all ready.

Roll out and pat into a 24cm pan. You can either put baking beans on it or simply poke the dough all over with a fork. This prevents air bubbles from forming, and your pie shell will come out all pretty and professional-looking.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes on 375 degrees.

Note: this recipe can be used as a base for many filled cookies, i.e jam-filled sandwich cookies, which you would roll out, cut out, and sandwich together with jam when baked. Then you can dip in icing sugar for a melt-in-your-mouth treat!