If you’re a fan of eyeballing (I hear you!), just be careful when you cut the first strip, then use that strip as a guide for the remaining pieces. Whether you’re trying to be super perfect or not, a ruler or even a spatula handle can help you maintain straight, even lines. Be sure to brush any excess flour away after you’ve finished rolling. Roll out your pie dough to 1/8-inch thick unless otherwise specified.Read the general guidelines, then either learn to master the traditional lattice, or try a new variation: Sometimes, it’s about finding the variety that’s right for both your style and the type of pie you're making. That hot July day as we took turns rolling out dough, she told me that it was altogether “too fussy.” Her pies were lovely, but far from pristine, and I guess she feared that a lattice would interrupt their naturally rustic good looks and take a turn for the worse.īut I am here now to shout from the rooftops that lattice is attainable-whether you’re aiming for perfectly imperfect or borderline pristine. And sometimes, it was to eat in between rounds of poker, standing at the kitchen counter, eating right out of the pie plate.īut the one thing my grandma wouldn’t make (at least not with any regularity or without an extremely special occasion in mind) was a lattice crust. Sometimes it was gift to someone (who would hopefully share). Sometimes, it was to accompany her killer pan-fried chicken and twice-baked potatoes. She looked at me and said, “I feel like we need pie. Indeed, once I arrived early in the morning to spend the day with her, and after sitting politely across the table from one another exchanging pleasantries for what felt like no time at all, we both got restless. This was not an unusual scene for my grandma and me. We’re huddled around her tiny kitchen island (which is crooked and rolls a little every time we shift pressure) and we’re making pies. We’re cranking the air conditioning to battle the nearly deadly combination of Kansas mid-July heat and an oven temperature of 425° F. I’m in my grandma’s kitchen, and it’s summer. One memory always comes to mind when I make a lattice crust pie.

Lattice pie crust