My hunch, if it was central VA and a BBQ place, was that it wasn't a pate sucree or something similar. It was probably an "American" pie crust. You can make a great flaky crust in about four minutes with butter, flour, and a little ice cold water. Can add a pinch of salt if you want. Leave some pretty large chunks of butter and make sure you do the fraisage. Like always, let it sit for an hour or so or even a day before rolling it out. Most likely based on cost and region, they probably used shortening, but don't. It tastes bad and makes your crust have a bad mouthfeel. Just use butter. Bake it well, maybe weighing it down, and make sure you bake it very close to the time you are going to use it. In other words, don't bake it today for use tomorrow or the next day. It's never as crisp as it is the first day. Let it cool, fill and serve immediately. The water from the filling will start to soften it right away, so you don't want to let that sit if you want to maintain the crispiness. This post was edited by rosesinny on Mon, Feb 18, 13 at 17:57

Mariah, here is my recipe for an oil-based pie crust. It is not "flaky" like a crust made with shortening, but it is very good and tasty. You roll it out between wax paper. I think you could add some natural sweetener to the dough for a sweeter pie. I also use it for quiche. I'm including my lowfat quiche recipe too, you and your hubby might like it. It's an easy, relatively painless way to add tofu to your diet. The crust sounds like it might go well with apple pie too! Pie Crust Mix together: 2 cups whole wheat PASTRY flour 2 tsp. salt (or a little less, depending on how strict your diet is) Here's where you could add a TBLSP of natural sugar Put 4 TBLSP COLD water into 1/2 cup of canola oil. Stir until bubbles are uniformly distributed. Pour liquid into flour mixture and stir. Separate into 2 piles and roll out between wax paper. Will hang together once it's rolled out. Low Calorie Quiche (from "Vegetarian Times" magazine) Crust: 1/2 cup rolled oats, ground into flour in a food processor (or oat bran) 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup unbleached white flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. baking powder 1/4-1/3 cup canola oil 2 TBLSP lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp. honey 2-3 TBLSP cold water 1-2 tsp. sesame seeds Mix dry ing. together. Drizzle in oil until mixture looks like coarse sand. Add lemon, honey and 2 TBLSP water until the dough forms a ball. Add more water if necessary. Roll out between wax paper. Can sprinkle the pan first with sesame seeds. Prick crust on sides and bottom. Prebake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Note: sesame seeds are undigestible whole. Toast them LIGHTLY in the oven, then grind in the blender or food processor, but not too much or you'll end up with tahini, lol! Store in the fridge and use as a topping for rice dishes, etc. Quiche Filling ing. 1 tsp. water or olive oil 1 cup minced onion 1 tsp. minced garlic (or less!) 3 cups small broccoli florets 1-2 TBLSP water 2 large egg whites 10 oz package soft, silken tofu (Mori Nu brand comes in a cardboard box and you can keep it on the shelf, so you can stock up when you hit a big city with a comprehensive grocery or health food store, but there are other brands out there which might be at your local store too) 1 TBLSP prepared dijon mustard 1 tsp. dried basil or rosemary 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. white pepper 1-2 TBLSP grated parmesean cheese (you can substitute nutritional yeast for the parmesean. Nutritional yeast is NOT brewer's yeast, which is a nutritional supplement. Nutritional yeast is a yellow, flaky powder, is a great cheese substitute for sprinkling. You'll find it in the refrigerator section of a health food store. Store it in your fridge at home.) Heat the oil or water in a skillet over med. heat. Add onion and sautee 3-5 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and broccoli and 1-2 TBLSP water. Steam until broccoli is bright green, about 2 min. Drain veggies if watery. Place in the pre-baked crust. Whip egg whites until frothy. Add tofu, spices and parmesean. Blend until smooth. Pour into pie crust. Can garnish with red pepper strips if desired, but not necessary. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. Watch the crust edges!

I like parchment best because it can be folded up easily to transfer the crust and with a little flour the crust won't stick. This is probably redundant, but to make great pie crusts, just make more! In other words, practice! Then you will know the deep, dark secrets of the pie world. The reason cooks like the vodka recipe is because it is so forgiving. With butter/shortening crusts, the dough Must be kept cold at all times. When the dough starts to even get close to room temp., I slide a cookie sheet under the parchment and pop the whole mess in the freezer. As I cut out leaves, or whatever decoration I want on top of the pie, they go on a plate to be popped in the freezer immediately. The cold, cold, cold thing can't be underemphasised with regular pie dough (butter, shortening or lard) Cracks are ok, warm is not. With the addition of the vodka, however, something magical takes place. the dough can be rolled out a little warmer, it becomes like play dough, and has no cracks. It is satisfying and easy to work with. But when cooked, the vodka evaporates and creates those beautiful layers and flakiness. If you used regular pie crust and rolled it out warm, you would get leather. All that said, I still am obsessed with keeping pie dough cold. Very cold. Cracks can be turned under for the crust. I always make about 3 times more dough than the recipe calls for, I want lots of wiggle room. The dough can be frozen anyway so it doesn't go to waste. (make a disc, wrap in lots of plastic and a freezer bag) However, I experienced the real beauty of the vodka dough one day when I let the dough get crazy warm. I was sure the crust was ruined. But it turned out great! Flaky, and just as perfect as using stiff, cold dough.

1. Prepare and roll out the pie crust. Transfer it to a standard 9-inch pie dish. Trim the edge almost even with the edge of the pan Fold the edges under and crimp with your fingers or a fork. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling. 2. Place one rack in the lower third of the oven and one in the center of the oven. Preheat to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat the eggs on low speed just until mixed, then add sugar, flour, and salt, mixing until evenly blended. Add the melted butter and mix well. 3. Gently stir in buttermilk, bourbon, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, and nutmeg. Pour into prepared pie shell. Gently place the pie dish on a rimmed baking sheet. 4. Bake pie at the bottom of oven for 20 minutes, then carefully transfer to center of oven bake an additional 40 minutes, until the center is set and a thin crust forms on top. Check the pie 30 minutes into baking and periodically towards the end of the baking—if at any point the crust is browning too quickly, shield it with foil or a pie shield and continue baking as directed.