Heretic's pie crust

For Patrick's birthday I made strawberry rhubarb pie from a recipe I found online.  To my surprise, the crust recipe used oil and milk instead of shortening and water.  The reviews mostly split into two camps.  Fist, pie crust purists who outright refused to try the crust made with oil, and second, people who had tried the recipe and loved the crust.  Since the oil crust was substantially easier than the shortening crust, I had to give it a try.  Purists, plug your ears...  It worked.  2 1/4 C flour, 1/2 t salt, 1/2 C vegetable oil, 6T milk.  Flour + salt, then oil + milk.  But don't mix the oil and milk together when you measure them together in the liquid measuring cup.  I don't know if that's actually important or not, but since it involves skipping a step instead of adding a step I follow that instruction religiously.  Don't add flour as you roll it out.  Instead, roll between two sheets of wax paper.  I actually found that the bottom layer of wax paper was unnecessary, since the dough doesn't stick to the counter.  I am actually planning to use the wax paper for all my rolling needs in the future, as it is much easier to control the mess compared to flour.  I always have stuff against the back edge of the counter, and getting flour on it drives me nuts. 

Yesterday was Jasper's birthday and I made empanadas for the party.  While making the crust, I poured the liquids into the flour, stirred twice, and just then Samara awakened from her nap and needed my help.  By the time I got back to the crust, the wet parts were too wet and the dry parts were too dry.  Chewey, glutinous strings had formed, and I had to add water and literally knead the crust to make it rollable.  I would have thrown it out except I didn't have enough oil to make a second batch, or enough time to go get more oil.  I soldiered on.  For each section I rolled, I kneaded it first, then rolled with all my might, only to watch it spring back from the edge like bread dough.  My 4" circles became 3" circles within a couple minutes.  Cutting small circles leaves a lot of scraps, so most of the rounds had dough that had been rolled at least twice.  I was about to be charged with pie crust abuse.

I cut my rounds, laid them between waxed paper, wrapped the stack in plastic, put it in the 'fridge and set it aside for 4 hours or so.  When I got them out to fill them, they had shrunk and thickened, and I had to smoosh them thin again between my fingers and work them with my hands to make them pliable enough to fill.  I was expecting them to be terrible, but they came out fine.  It wasn't a fine pastry, but it did the job and didn't detract from the meal.  There is no way a shortening or butter crust could have withstood this treatment.

When I did a better job the first time I made it, the crust was quite good and caused me very little hassle compared to a regular pie crust.  When I made it the second time, this recipe prevented a party disaster.  So I am now officially a pie crust heretic and plan to make my crusts with oil henceforward.