Recipe of November - Pie Crust

With the holiday’s arriving these two words may cause you severe anxiety, PIE CRUST!

With some tips and patience you can make pie crust that is as flaky as the pies Mom or Grandmother whipped up!

You want pockets of your butter or shortening in the dough so that when you roll it out, you have layers or if we want to use technical bake speak, “flakes”.

The two step method will help you attain these flakes by adding the butter then the shortening.

As always, make sure you have all of your ingredients ready….

Ingredients: 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon sugar 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening 6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water

Directions:

1. Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl with a wire whisk. Add the butter to the bowl. With a pastry blender or your finger tips,

2. Cut or rub half of the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles cornmeal. Add the shortening in the same manner until the largest pieces are the size of peas, lifting and fluffing the flour mix to incorporate air which also creates flaky pie crust. Although “rubbing in the shortening with your fingertips” may sound like just what you don’t want to do, this is actually a very effective way to do this job. Your fingertips are usually quite cool so, if you work quickly, they won’t really soften the butter much.

3. Sprinkle the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, over the flour/shortening mixture. With a fork, toss together the mixture you’ve just moistened and push it to one side. Continue until the dough is just moist enough to hold together when you press it. Gather the mixture together and cut it in two pieces. If you are making the dough for a double crust pie, make one piece slightly larger than the other since it has to fit down into the pie plate.

4. Gently press each piece into a round, flattened disk about 4 or 5 inches in diameter. This makes the dough easier to roll out later. Chill for 2 hours or overnight. This makes the gluten hibernate, no tough crust, the butter and shortening back to its solid star, hence more flakes, and matures the flavor of the dough. Who doesn’t want flavorful dough! Don’t fret if you don’t have that much time, 30 minutes will still render a flakey delish dough! If you have chilled your dough more than 1 hour, let it sit at room temp for 10-15 minutes before rolling. Roll the dough from the center to the outside edge in all directions. Do it gently, without pushing down hard, because you don’t want to squeeze out any air that is lurking in the dough. Use a spatula or bowl scraper to loosen it if it begins to stick, and throw a bit of flour underneath to keep it loose, same with your rolling pin. By rolling from the middle out to the edges, you enlarge the dough without making it “stretchy,” which happens when you go back and forth over the whole thing. This helps keep it from shrinking when it bakes. Roll the crust until it is about 1/8 inch thick and about 2 inches larger than the diameter of the pie plate. If you are specially challenged as I am, 1/8 inch looks like the rim of a regular plate or the rim of a glass. There you have a beautiful thing ready to be filled with deliciousness! Oh, here at HCC we bake a blind crust,one thats unfilled at 450 degrees for about 8 - 10 minutes.