Pat-in-the-Pan Hot-Water Pie Crust

If you dread making classic pie dough, rolling it out and fitting it into the pie plate, this is the crust for you. It’s a twist on a hot-water pie crust we learned from food writer Paola Briseño-González. The fat in the dough is melted and brought to a simmer with a little water, then the flour is stirred in, so there’s no need to keep the ingredients cold, nor for delicate handling. The dough is patted into a pie plate, eliminating the need for tricky rolling and transferring. The baked pie shell has a sturdy, sandy, cookie-like texture rather than the flakiness of classic pie pastry; it is good with almost any type of filling. We use a combination of butter and coconut oil as the fat. Refined coconut oil has a neutral flavor; unrefined can be quite assertive. Either works, so consider the flavor profile of your filling when deciding which to use. Alternatively, feel free to swap in an equal amount of shortening.