In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt with your hand. Add the cubes of butter and pieces of shortening in the mixture. Using a pastry blender or your hand, cut the butter and shortening into the flour. Keep mixing until you have small pea size flour.
Sprinkle half of the water and using a fork, mix and fluff the mixture. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time and keep mixing with your hand. If it’s too crumbly, add more water. If it’s too wet, add a little bit of flour. You want it to be moist but not wet.
Knead a little bit and then shape into a ball. Flatten into a disc and wrap in a plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight before rolling.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Take out the crust out the plastic wrap and put on a floured surface. Roll out into the size of your pie plate with a 2 inch overhang. Put the crust onto the pie plate and gently push the sides so it rests on your pie plate. Make the edges by folding the overhang into the side of the pie plate. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Tear off an aluminum foil to a size that is bigger than your pie plate. Put it on top of the pie crust and make the foil like a second skin of the crust. Put uncooked rice or dried beans on top of the foil.
Bake for 15 minutes. Slide out the oven rack and take out the foil. Prick the pastry all around the crust. Lower oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake again for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Classic Lemon Chess Pie Filling
In a stand mixer, cream butter and add sugar 1/4 cup at a time. Add flour and salt and mix.
Add eggs on at a time and mix after adding each one. Mix in lemon juice and lemon zest. It will look curdled but that is what it is suppose to look like.
Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell. Bake for 45 minutes, turning it halfway around the baking time. To see if the pie is ready, nudge the pie plate gently and see if the center of the pie still moves. If it does, bake for another 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.