This recipe can be made either by hand or in a food processor. I've included directions for both, but if mixing by hand consider Julia's notes: You must train yourself to work rapidly, particularly if your kitchen is warm, so that the butter will soften as little as possible. Use very quick, light finger movements, and do not linger on the dough at all with the warm palms of your hands. A pastry blender may be used if you wish, but a necessary part of learning how to cook is to get the feel of the dough in your fingers.

If mixing by hand: Place flour, salt, sugar, butter, and vegetable shortening in a big mixing bowl. Rub the flour and fat together rapidly between the tips of your fingers until the fat is broken into pieces the size of oatmeal flakes Do not overdo this step as the fat will be blended more thoroughly later. Add the water and blend quickly with one hand, fingers held together and slightly cupped, as you rapidly gather the dough into a mass. Sprinkle up to 1 tablespoon more water by dropletes over any unmassed remains and add them to the main body of the dough firmly into a roughly shaped ball. It should just hold together and be pliable, but not sticky. Proceed to the fraisage.

If using a food processor: Fit the bowl of your food processor with a steel blade; measure flour, salt, and sugar into the bowl. Pulse a couple of times to aerate and blend together the dry ingredients. Add butter and shortening to the bowl; Pulse 4 to 5 times. Measure out 1/4 cup of iced water in a small bowl, turn your food processor on, and then slowly pour it in all at once. Immediately begin to turn the machine off and on several times until the dough begins to mass together. If this doesn't happen rather quickly, dribble in the remaining iced water and continue to pulse the machine off and on. If the dough still doesn't begin to mass together, repeat one more time. Once the dough has begun to mass together it is done. Do not over mix the dough. Scrape the dough out onto your work surface, and proceed to the fraisage.

The fraisage (the final blending): Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. With the heel of one hand, not the palm which is too warm, rapidly press the pastry by two-spoonful bits down on the surface and away from you in a firm, quick smear of about 6-inches. [The goal of the fraisage is to incorporate streaks of butter into the dough, which will help create a flaky crust; you will actually be able to see the streaks of butter throughout the dough.]

With a scraper or spatula, gather the dough again into a mass; knead it briefly into a fairly smooth round ball. Sprinkle it lightly with flour and wrap it in waxed paper. Allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight or in the freezer for 1 hour before rolling it out. Once the dough has rested, proceed to roll it out as shown in this blog post.

Baking: Bake at the middle level of a preheated 400-degree oven for 8-9 minutes until pastry is set. Remove the foil and pie weights. Prick bottom of pastry with a fork to keep it from rising.

For partially cooked shell: Return to oven for 2 to 3 minutes more. When the shell is starting to color and just beginning to shrink from sides, remove it from the oven.

For a fully cooked shell: Bake 7 to 10 minutes more, or until the shell is very lightly browned.

-Well-wrapped uncooked pastry dough will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. It can also be frozen for a month or two, but be sure to wrap it and then seal in a freezer bag.

-Weighing dry ingredients is the most accurate way to get consistent results with any kind of baking. If you don't have a kitchen scale available, be sure to use the scoop and sweep method to measure your flour, in which your gently spoon flour into the cup measurement and then use a knife to level it off. This prevents the flour from being packed in, which happens when you use the cup measurement as the scoop itself. When you pack the flour in like this, you are actually getting a lot more flour than anticipated, which can definitely alter finicky baked goods like pastry dough. For more information on how to accurately measure flour, click here.

-I like to cube and measure out the butter, shortening, and water first, then stick them in the freezer while I start to measure the other ingredients. By the time I need the butter, shortening, and water, they've chilled nicely.

-Keeping everything as cold as possible really helps. Try working on a marble slab (like this one that I used before I had marble counter tops) if you have it!

-You might not need to use as much water either. I'd advise to start slowly with the water and keeping adding more as needed. (I never use the full half cup)

-Finally, try not to overwork the dough at any stage in the process. If it becomes hard to work with when you are rolling it out, just stick it back in the fridge (covered) for 10-15 minutes and come back to it. Overworked pastry dough is tough and chewy.

-I provided the recipe for making two pie crusts because I always make two when I am making pastry dough since it keeps so well in the freezer - that way I am one step closer to a homemade dessert during the holidays when you never know when you might need one.