Hi Marlenea, Oh, I know this can be a problem.  Here are a few of my suggestions for tender, not tough, pie crust: --What makes a tender and flaky crust is the tiny pieces of fat mixed with the flour, so you don't want to mix the dough too much. And you want to keep the butter very cold, so make sure all the ingredients are cold when starting; you might even want to put the butter or shortening in the freezer for about 15 minutes before starting. And be sure to use ice-cold water if the recipe calls for adding water to the dough. Also, try not to handle the dough with your fingers too much as that can warm up the dough and cause the fat to melt into the flour. --Use pastry flour or all-purpose flour. Bread flour is not good for pie crust. --When choosing the fat, there’s always a trade-off between flavor (butter) and tenderness (shortening or lard). So if you really want a tender crust, use all shortening, but it won’t taste as good as a butter crust. I usually compromise and use half butter, half shortening. --Go easy on the flour--too much will definitely make your crust tough. If you’re baking in humid weather your dough might be a little wetter than it should be, tempting you to add more flour. Don’t do this, as it will put off the ratio of fat and flour. Instead, if it’s humid, at the beginning you should add a little less liquid than the recipe calls for; you can always add more if the dough is too dry. To get you started, you might want to try the dough in my Rustic Apple Tart -- it works fine if fitted into a pie dish. Hope this helps!