In a large bowl, whisk flour with the salt and any optional flavourings.
The easiest way to make pastry is to coarsely grate the cold fat into the flour. Simple—no food processor,stand mixer, pastry blender or knives. Use your box grater to coarsely grate butter and lard. Add to flour mix and fold in with fingers, coating grated fat with flour.
Measure out the ice-cold water and mix in vanilla
Add 5 Tbsp (75 mL) water-vanilla mixture to the pas-try and mix with hands until the dough starts to come together, adding more cold liquid if needed.
Transfer dough to a clean surface and give it a good quick knead until the dough comes together enough to form 2 round discs. Wrap each disc in 2 layers of plastic wrap. Store in the fridge and let rest at least 30 mins, preferably overnight, before rolling.
Lightly dust surface and a rolling pin with flour. Have a pie plate nearby and roll out the pastry to fit the pie plate. Any overhang can be trimmed or tucked underafter. Roll away from you and from the centre out. Rotate your pastry as you roll and flip over a few times to make sure the bottom doesn’t stick, dusting with more flour if necessary. If you totally screw up, gather and press pastry together to form a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest again in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
Transfer pastry to pie plate by gently rolling the dough around the rolling pin, lifting and rolling it out overtop of the pie plate. Trim with kitchen shears or tuck overhang under and crimp. If making double pie crust, Fill pie with prepared filling then layer over pie crust, vent if necessary, and crimp to side of bottom crust. Brush with egg wash for a nice golden color.