First, we have pies and tarts (and yes, I realize this would have been helpful to have prior to Thanksgiving, but since I clearly couldn't get my act together before then, there is now a whole year to perfect our pies before the next Thanksgiving!). To (try to) keep it brief, I'll give you some really good tips and a few pretty pictures :)
pecan pie with hand cut leaves and whipped cream rosettes
The key to any great pie starts with the crust... and to get the perfect crust, there are a few essential things to do. (Read: these tips are not optional, as I quickly learned in class).
A simple way to remember how to make pie dough is: 3, 2, 1. Three parts flour, two parts butter, 1 part ice cold liquid. Here's a good formula that will make three 8-ounce crusts (you can freeze the dough).
Basic Pie Dough:
12 oz pastry flour
8 oz cold butter (or shortening.. shortening makes a flaky crust, butter has better flavor)
4 oz ice cold water (or milk, if you want a richer dough)
.25 oz salt
1. Get all the ingredients ready.
2. Mix the salt in with the water, then put the water in the freezer while you work.
3. Sift the flour into a large bowl.
4. Cut the butter into the flour.
5. Pour the salted water into the bowl and gently toss the ingredients together until a sticky, lumpy dough has formed.
6. Cut the dough (DON'T pull it apart) to weigh three 8-oz pieces, then wrap them and put them into the fridge.
Now, those tips:
First, use COLD butter and ICE COLD water. Really. You don't want that butter getting warm, either from your hands or from "cold" straight from the tap water. The reason being is that you want the butter to melt when it's in the oven, trapped between flour particles, so that it makes the dough flakey and delicious. If your butter gets warm, it mixes in with the flour too much, making the dough tough and chewy.
Second, use pastry flour. It can be hard to find, but never fear- you can make it on your own! Just use a ratio of 60% bread flour to 40% cake flour (make sure you sift the two flours together). Pastry flour is perfect to pie crusts, because it has juuuuuust enough gluten to hold together, but not so much that its tough to work with.
Third, mix the dough with your hands. Not only is it wonderfully cathartic, but you can really feel how the dough is coming together. To cut in the butter, first chop it into fairly even chunks around an inch square. Plop the chunks into the flour, then use your hands to squish and spread the butter into flakes. Kind of press your palms together, then push one hand forward and pull the other one back. To make the perfect top & bottom crust, aim for the majority of the butter flakes being about quarter-sized.
butter chunks
cutting in the butter
the finished consistency (before adding water)
Fourth, give the dough plenty of time to rest. It gets tired getting made, and needs some time to relax in the fridge before it's ready to get rolled out. Really though, put the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours before you plan on rolling it out and baking with it. (It's perfectly fine to leave it overnight too). If you shape the dough into a disc before you put it into the fridge to cool, it will make life sooooo much easier when it comes to rolling it out.
Fifth, when you finally do roll out the dough, you will have the urge to ball it back up and roll it out again, like you can do with sugar cookies. This is a baaaaaaadddd idea. Don't do it. The beautiful dough you just made will go from baking to a perfectly flakey crust to a lumpy, tough crust. Roll it out just one time, fixing any little imperfections or cracks by pressing the dough together with your fingers as you go along.
Side note... I just got this new rolling pin from Williams-Sonoma (thanks Mama!!), and I am INLOVEWITHIT. I didn't believe it would be as awesome as it is, but man, I will never use another rolling pin. Ever. Here's a link for it: coolest rolling pin ever.
Oh! A tip about apple pie: peel, core and slice the apples (about 1/4" slices), then toss them with the spices and flour in a large bowl and let them sit in the fridge for an hour-ish (a little more than that is okay too). This lets a lot of the juice come out of the apples, which in turn makes the pie less likely to be a runny, juicy mess after the first slice is cut. When you place the apples in the crust, pick them up out of the bowl, so that you leave the juice behind in the bowl, not your pie. Trust me... I'll be doing this from now on! The apples turn out like this:
Okay... more tips and formulas to come... but at least its a start! :)
Happy Baking!
