« April in Paris, bánh mì in blossom | Home | Guess the dessert: »
I now enter Phase II of Learn to Bake.
By Kristen | February 22, 2007
When I set my “learn to bake” resolution, I wanted to be able to bake a cake, a pie crust, and a not-cake-or-pie dessert. I’m pretty comfortable with cakes now, having made a two-layer birthday cake as well as vegan cupcakes recently, and I think I’m about ready to learn the intricacies of pie crust .
And, I’ll be honest, I find pastry (making it, not eating it) deeply intimidating. Unlike cake baking, I’ve never even seen anyone make a pie crust. The closest I’ve ever come was hearing my mom mention how her grandmother used to make really great pie crusts — and even if there is a pie crust gene, it’s probably a recessive one.
And so, I’m calling on you, gentle reader, to act as my own personal Wikipedia. I’ll call you… Gezellipedia.
So, give it to me straight, Gezellipedia: how do I make a pie crust?
Topics: Resolutions: 2007, Questions |
Loading ...
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:03 am
Hmm. I was going to suggest the traditional piecrust using Crisco, but that is not so good in these times. I looked at Marion Cunningham’s Fannie Farmer, and she has an unconventional method that she says is great for novices; AND it uses oil, rather than shortening or butter. That being said, I’ve never made this. Do you want to try? Here’s her receipt and abbreviated method.
Stirred Dough (8-inch pie shell)
1 Cup flour, pinch salt, 1/2 t sugar, 4-5 T oil (peanut, corn, or other vegetable, in that order of preference), 1 T milk.
Combine dry ingredients. Stir 3 T of oil and milk together and sprinkle overflour mix. and stir with a fork. Add another T of oil, still stirring. Gently pat the dough into a ball, and if it holds together and feels moist, it is ready to roll out. If not, add the remaining oil. Put a large piece of wax paper on your board and pat the dough into a 5 in circle. Put another sheet on top, and roll out.
Peel off top paper. Invert the dough over your pie plate and ease it into the pan, then gently pull the paper off (you may have to fidget with this step).
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 am
Corny Alert: Making crust is easy as pie.
Really. People are so freaked out by it, but there’s really nothing to it. You need flour, you need fat (some use butter, some use Crisco, some use a mixture of both), you need a smidgen of salt, and you need a bit of ice-cold water.
Cut the fat into the flour and salt until you’ve got a coarse meal, then start adding water, about a tablespoon at a time, until the dough holds together when you squeeze it into a ball. Divide the dough (if the recipe makes enough crust for a two-crust pie or for two single-crust pies), form each half into a hockey-puck-looking disc, wrap in plastic, refrigerate for a spell, roll it out on a lightly-floured surface (keep the dough from sticking by moving it around as you roll it, picking it up and turning it a bit, for example) or roll it out between sheets of waxed or parchment paper. If you go the paper route, you can use it to “flop” the crust into your pan. If you roll it out on the counter, roll the crust over your rolling pin and unroll it over your pan.
The key is not to overwork it early in the process. I once dated a guy who thought you had to knead pie crust like bread dough, and couldn’t understand why his crusts were never flaky.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 am
Have you tried Spectrum’s Organic Shortening as a Crisco substitute? It’s made from palm oil, and has no trans or hydrogenated fats. I bought some to make the filling in those vegan cupcakes.
Oh, hell — I just realized I don’t have a rolling pin anymore.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
I confess - my pie crusts suck. Mostly because like Beth’s old boyfriend, I mess with it too much. I’ve also tried the oil crust tut-tut mentions (too “oily” for my taste). I do know that all the *best* crusts use lard as their shortening. Whatever shortening you go with, experience is your best teacher. Practice, practice, practice. Good luck!
February 22nd, 2007 at 10:46 am
Guilty to of messing with my piecrust dough too much! I use a combo of butter and Crisco. I don’t think it really matters though. Each is partial to their own fat.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:01 am
When I get home, I’ll have to post the pie crust recipe that I got from a 1992 issue of Bon Appetite.
It was very easy and that was the recipe I used the very first time I ever baked anything from scratch. I made an apple pie and at that time, I didn’t even have a rolling pin and it still came out good.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:26 am
Use a glass bottle. AND very cold water. Butter works best incorperate to size of peas.
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Here you go! Check out the Amateur Gourmet’s explanation. I think he had the wrong issue of Gourmet, though - I think it was the August, not July edition.
Whatever you do, don’t try this in a hot kitchen, or on a hot day. You will want someone to put you out of your misery.
There are different kinds of crusts. Three are pate brisee, pate sucree, and pate sablee. The last one is absolutely the easiest, as you can actually pat it in a pie plate. Sherry Yard has a recipe in her cookbook, The Secrets of Baking.
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Oops - forgot to post the link in my previous post. Here it is:
http://www.amateurgourmet.com/the_amateur_gourmet/2006/07/as_easy_as.html
As for the Spectrum Organics shortening, that’s all I’ve used for shortening every since I discovered it a few years ago. It works just fine. I never make an all shortening crust, though - love the butter for flakiness and flavor. The shortening makes it tender.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Sally: Lard. Hmm. This may require further investigation.
Alex: Awesome! Thanks, man.
Madame Chow: You know, I saw that post when it was written — and promptly went out and bought the aforementioned wrong issue of Gourmet.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:14 pm
After looking it up, I think this is the recipe from Gourmet Magazine used in that Amateur Gourmet post.
February 22nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
I don’t like lard except in homemade tortillas. The key to really flaky, yummy pate brisee is to use ice cold water and work quickly.
Double pie crust:
2.5 c unbleached flour
1 cup (2 sticks) really cold unslated butter, cut into smallish chunks
1 teaspoon each sugar and salt
1/2 cup ice cold water
Whisk the dry ingredients together, add the butter, and quickly smoosh them together to form a dry mass of chunks. Add the water slowly and stir until it forms into a ballish-shape of dough. Divide it into two chunks, wrap them in plastic wrap, push it down to form flat disks, and freeze them for an half an hour to an hour. Let them thaw a bit and use a shit-load of flour when you’re rolling it out. Eyeballing the rolled-out dough to make sure it fits the pie dish becomes easier with practice (I’ve seen people use a measuring stick). Curiously, Ireally love making pie but I don’t like to eat it. Well, except for chicken pot pie. Oh, ans vanilla cream pie.
Good luck!
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I can’t help with a recipe since I am still struggling to make a perfect crust myself since we had to go gluten free. I can say that if you don’t have a rolling pin, use an unopened and chilled bottle of wine to roll out your dough. Added bonus: once the pie is in the oven, you have a bottle of wine begging to be opened for those “is it too early to start drinking days.”
Good luck and happy baking!
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:06 pm
ms_bobo: Have you already tried this one? http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2006/11/who-needs-gluten-when-there-is-pumpkin.html
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Basic Pie Crust Dough - From the November 1993 issue of Bon Appetit (Which I totally need to xerox for you — parts of it are HILARIOUS)
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 2 CRUSTS
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablesspoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening
9 tables (about) ice water
Sift first 2 ingredients into medium bowl. Add butter and shortening and rub with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal.
Stir in enough water by tablespoons until dough begins to come together. Gather dough into a ball; divide in half. Flatten each half into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 30 minutes.
(Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled)
—
And it’s funny that Jim mentioned you, “Use a glass bottle.” because that’s exactly what I used the first time I made the crust.
Let me know if you want the recipe of Classic Apple Pie that calls for this crust. It’s tasty and only uses 5 ingredients.
February 22nd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
OK, I may get some flack for this…but I’m a big fan of making pie dough in the Cuisinart. I use an all-butter crust, and I use Martha Stewart’s pate brisee recipe, which I’ll link later. I actually set the timer so that I don’t overwork the dough in my machine. Yes, I set the timer for 10 seconds. Actually, I set it for 12 so I have 2 second’s worth of wiggle room.And yes, I know I’m a dork.
It so much less work and stress than making the dough by hand, and it turns out great every time.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Here’s the Martha Stewart pie crust recipe
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Try my recipe; it has an egg in it, which makes it much easier to work with than “classic” recipes, more tender than flaky, but also delicious.
http://technically.us/eat/articles/2006/10/05/cooking-101-moms-pie-crust
February 28th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
I use the Best Recipe pie dough recipe and it is very reliable and makes a remarkable workable dough. It uses a food processor for cutting in the fat, which makes things very easy. It also calls for a long series of refrigeration and freezing, most of which I ignore. Some chilling of the dough helps, though.
Don’t worry about cracks when you put your dough down into the pie plate. They can be patched with extra dough trimmed off of the edges. Use a little bit of water to help glue the pieces together.
If you are pre-baking a shell (as for a custard pie) and don’t have pie weights, you can put a layer of aluminum foil down and put almost anything oven safe on the foil to keep the dough weighted down. My mom used dried beans.