Pillsbury™ Refrigerated Pie Crusts

I just posted the recipe for My Legendary Chicken Pot Pie and realised I'd never really come out of the closet about using Pillsbury™ Refrigerated Pie Crusts before.

I mean, I've never LIED and said I made my crusts, to my knowledge, but I never come right out and tell people I DON'T ... anyway, it made me realise how much I rely on them.

1. DO ! NOT ! ACCEPT ! IMITATIONS ! ! !  There are many things I will go store brand for, but THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM ! Trust me. I've tried.
2. In the last couple of years they have revamped the formula. I've worked with these crusts for DECADES. They changed them about two years ago and THEY ! WILL ! NOT ! BE ! manipulated. You used to be able to roll them out a little and bend them to your will. Not no more ... You gotta unroll them with your hands and you're stuck with that shape and those dimensions. Don't try to roll them out at all or you'll have a mess. I mean, you can cut them and use them for tarts and to line muffin tins, but you can't roll them out.

Stuff I use them for:

THEE PERFECT APPLE PIE RECIPE from Pillsbury™. I'm not kiddin' you, Never fails. It's on the side of every box. The only change I make is I dice crystallized ginger and put it in there. I also use lots of different kinds of apples.

I just had some Taco Tuesday left over and an extra shell from Chicken Pot Pie the other night, so I lined a cake tin with it, scooped in the Taco Tuesday meat and put cheese on top of it. I simply folded the edges over the whole thing and put it in at 350 for 20 minutes.

Actually, I Remember Mama (oh, that's funny ! Mama is what we called Mommy's Mother !) Mama always used to have a pie shell sitting on the counter during fruit season and make "dump" pies. While she and Great Aunt Edna were canning, they'd just flick leftover fruit in to the pie crust, put this crumble top on top, and bake for a nice fruit pie.

I also dearly love to fry up a ton of sweet onions in butter, make a little roux and bake a nice onion pie with celery.

I've cut them in circles and used them to line cupcake wells. I USED to be able to reform the leftover crust for more circles, but lately I can't with the new formula, it doesn't work that well.

Hope this helps. Have fun with them ! The crust is ALWAYS GORGEOUS.