Looks like I’m not the only one who is super busy today, but here’s a strawberry pie to tide you over:
Strawberries are in season down here, and the mister and I picked up a flat yesterday. The pie was really good except for the substandard store-bought crust.
I’m not much of a baker, and I’ve never found a good foolproof homemade crust recipe. So I settled for Pillsbury, which is like driving a Porsche on retreads. Oh well. Open thread!
Baud
No pie filter needed for this post!
ron
best store bought in my experience – trader joes.
try this recipe for homemade – http://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/pie-dough
Davebo
I like pie!
But it needs some heavy whipping cream whipped up on top!
debit
There is no shame in a store bought crust. At least I tell myself that when I fail yet again at homemade.
Emerald
My gramma told me to always use shortening for pie crusts, not butter.
Thousands disagree but I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve never had a crust fail with Crisco.
Ohio Mom
My kid’s caseworker just called to postpone tonight’s meeting until Wednesday — her car is acting up.
Feels like a snow day. No running around to pick up house. Plenty of time for leisurely dinner. Maybe we can find a way to cancel Wednesday’s meeting too…
Eric S.
I’m at home today getting the condo ready for post surgery. Tomorrow is my rotator cuff surgery. I’ve stocked up on ice and food. Mom has arrived in town to play chauffeur. I’m taking 2 full weeks off before returning to the office. This is a re-repair. I don’t want a re-re-repair. So I’m going to take it slow and easy.
Steeplejack (phone)
Huh, Leicester City is putting a beatdown on Liverpool. Roughly equivalent to the Cleveland Browns blanking the Steelers.
ETA: Liverpool showing signs of life.
Mnemosyne
@Emerald:
According to Alton Brown, the secret is a combination of butter and Crisco to get the right ratio of crispy to flaky. His recipe should still be on the Food Network website.
Emerald
@Mnemosyne:
Well, my crusts, with Crisco only, are always flaky and tasty.
But as I said, thousands disagree.
(Technique might count too: don’t rub it in too hard. Use a very light touch.)
rikyrah
The pie looks delicious :)
I don’t know how to make a crust…I buy Pillsbury or Deep Dish Pet Ritz
wmd
I use butter. 4:2:1 flour:shortening:ice cold water. Do not work dough too long.
Elma
Try this pie crust. Super easy and good every time. https://www.chowhound.com/post/penzeys-roll-pie-crust-472214
wmd
I use butter. 4:2:1 flour:shortening:ice cold water. Do not work dough too long.
Easy as pie.
schrodingers_cat
Mera Yaar Milade (Help me find my friend/beloved).
*banjaar == barren
Another great number from A. R. Rahman.
trollhattan
Kentucky county not sad about being grifted per se, only sad that the grift may bankrupt them.
Hi-ho T-rex, and away!
Eric S.
@Emerald: I’m not a baker but I’ve heard Crisco is important for pie crusts.
I’ll always remember the first Thanksgiving my mom was in Cincinnati. One of her friends brought a store purchased pie. My grandmother, bless her heart, held her tongue until the friend left then went on a tirade about how bad the pie was.
? Martin
This is the recipe I use. Hundreds of pies made with it. I don’t use a processor but a stand mixer instead. 1 cup of water is usually too much, closer to half that much normally for me, and I usually start with ¼ cup of vodka from the freezer and then finish up with water.
The vodka will evaporate during baking but won’t cause gluten to form, so the crust will be super-flaky. Too much vodka and it doesn’t hold together after being baked. You want at least 50% water or more.
It’ll take a few laps before you get the feel for what it should look like in the bowl and the consistency you want for rolling, but once you get an eye for that, it’s just about the best recipe out there, IMO, and easy to do. Make the dough the day before you need it – it benefits from set-up time. You can also freeze it.
Dupe1970
Where’s the rhubarb?!
Mnemosyne
I got to drink at work this morning. That was nice. We were all very happy about last night’s award results since we weren’t affected by The Mistake.
stinger
Looks yummy. There are a few “tricks” to pie crust.
1. As with biscuits, handle it as little as possible. I remember my mother sprinkling flour on the table, rolling the dough out, adding more flour, adding more water, picking up the dough and slapping it down again, more water, more flour, rolling it some more — it was shoe leather by the time she was done. She was a fabulous bread baker, but pie dough needs the opposite treatment!
2. Add as little water as possible — and it should be ice water — relying on the warmth of your hands to make it all stick together.
3. Use all butter or at least half butter/half shortening. NO oil, sour cream, or other fancy stuff. Just flour, butter, a little sugar for dessert pies, a pinch of salt, and enough ice water so it comes together in a ball.
4. Roll it out, fold in thirds, roll again, fold in thirds again, then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a half hour before finally rolling it to fit the pan. The folding will help it be flaky when baked.
ETA: I grew up on shortening-only pie crusts. Changed after reading America’s Test Kitchen on the subject. I might try it again after reading Emerald’s encomium!
japa21
@Eric S.: Today marks 5 weeks post-op for me. Had rotator, biceps and labrum tears PT is the biggest pain for me but am improving. I haven’t driven yet but will start later this week.
Iowa Old Lady
I used to make good pie crust with margarine. When I try with only butter, it sucks.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: Gee, I can’t imagine why a feature like this –
– wasn’t pulling in the crowds!
Maybe “Idiot America” isn’t quite as idiotish as I used to think.
Calouste
@Steeplejack (phone): It would be if the Browns had won last year’s Super Bowl.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Okay, this actually sounds cooler than I expected, but I’m assuming they could only afford a few lame dioramas and not, say, a bunch of giant battlebots with flamethrowers attached.
? Martin
@trollhattan: If only they had that money they gave to that TV preacher who was screwin’ that hockey player…
Impressive you can fill a city council with rubes like that.
MattF
@trollhattan: Has Mr. Ham told them when the spaceship is supposed to arrive? Did they buy tickets? (Cheap!)
craigie
@trollhattan:
I don’t think that’s “reinterpreting history” so much as just making shit up.
Dmbeaster
Yeah. Crust involves simple ingredients but a careful touch to get it right. Its about preserving the folded nature of flour and shortening. Flakiness results from the small voids left by little flat lenses of shortening that cook the adjoining flour mixture and leave behind little voids. If its handled and mixed too much, the flour gets baked into one solid mass
? Martin
@trollhattan:
Reminder that Horizon Zero Dawn comes out tonight. Post-trumpian society where humans revert to hunter gatherer status and fend off robot dinosaurs. I cannot wait. The Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho State of the Union will be something I only read about on Wednesday.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I use Flo Braker’s classic crust recipe, which has painstakingly precise instructions for the novice crust maker and works every time. I always make a double batch and then if I’m making a single-crust pie, I can stick the rest of the dough in the freezer for another easy-as-pie dessert later.
I love pie.
ETA: What @? Martin: said. Julia’s recipe is a classic for a reason and I use it frequently, too.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Mnemosyne: John Scalzi had an epic beatdown of the Creation Museum a few years back (2007 or so). If you google Scalzi/Creation Museum it should come up. (Link-fu fails me today….)
Pogonip
Crisco.
Regarding earlier discussion of science and its ways, Slate Star Codex has a very long discussion of same today.
He also discusses the CRT, Cognitive IforgetwhattheRstandsfor Test. I am curious because women do much worse on this test. In tests where there’s a sex difference in results I always come out on the masculine side. They gave me that one where they ask you a whole bunch of silly questions, including about Alice in Wonderland, and the school psychologist made me take it twice because he thought I’d marked the answer boxes wrong, the mistake you make when you think you’re marking answer 1 when it’s actually answer 2. Harrumph.
40 years later, the test designers finally figure out the results you get from SWPL-class American college students do not necessarily apply to everyone else. I bet if you tested a few hundred non-SWPL women we’d all come out “masculine.”
raven
From Garden and Gun
Eric S.
@japa21: Wishing you a successful and speedy recovery. Listen to your therapist and don’t overdo it.
It’s my right shoulder, my shifting arm. Based on the first surgery 2 years ago it’ll be close to 60 days before I can drive my cars. Fortunately, I live on the north side of Chicago and can walk or take the El as necessary.
Pogonip
@Iowa Old Lady: Crisco. Do exactly what the can tells you to do.
japa21
@Miss Bianca: Actually, the Ark itself is doing okay, but the other businesses in the area are not getting the benefits they were hoping for.
Mnemosyne
@Emerald:
I’m guessing it’s the technique. If you can find the episode of “Good Eats” on YouTube, it’s pretty funny. They have boxing nun puppets punching Alton in the head.
Miss Bianca
@japa21: Well, for one thing…it’s not an experience you’re going to repeat. You go once to the Creation Museum, get the good word about how Jesus and the dinosaurs totally cohabited, and that’s it. You’re never going back. How many new “exhibits” can they come up with? “Oh, this just in – dragons were totally dinosaurs! And we found St. George’s bloody tunic and sword in a cave in the mountains!” Uh…no.
trollhattan
My mom and gramma would tell all y’all crust makers you need lard. They would, but they’re no longer in the kitchen cooking up memories.
Woodrowfan
@Emerald: That’s what she said!!
(sorry, hangs head in shame)
aimai
@trollhattan: Its done well, but it hasn’t done well.
Welp. There’s no point trying to reason with these people. This sentence alone proves that. They are simply incapable of admitting the central flaw in their logic is wishful thinking.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
Aside from the religious silliness, this sounds much like sports stadium deals that fail to deliver a bounty of revenues and leaves cities holding the bag.
JustRuss
Our 2-year-old Maine Coon (I think of him as Steve Jr.) has been missing since Saturday. Fearing the worst, he never misses a meal.
PaulW
Plant City Strawberry Festival starts this weekend!
Only problem: the performing artists are mostly country. there’s no death metal. CMON PLANT CITY, You are in METAL COUNTRY too.
PaulW
@JustRuss:
I dread letting my cats go outdoors.
I hope you find your kitteh asap. Check the local shrubbery between home and… um… Montana.
Shell
Strawberries give off so much juice when baked. Do you use some kind of thickener?
schrodingers_cat
@JustRuss: Have you checked under your deck. My orange girl managed to escape once, guess where I found her?
evap
Betty, if you have a food processor then making good pie crust is easy. The technique on the Serious Eats website makes the most amazing piecrust. For me, producing the pastry is easy, it’s the rolling and putting it in the pie pan that I hate.
Instead of Pillsbury, get one of those frozen ones, preferably a natural one from Whole Foods or a similar store. They tend to be the best non-homemade crusts.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Yeah, if you’re going to take the family someplace year after year, is it going to be the Creation Museum or Disneyland? Not a difficult decision except for the nuttiest of Christianists.
stinger
@Iowa Old Lady: Hmm, I’ll try one with margarine — it’s kind of a cross between shortening and butter!
zhena gogolia
I swear by Fannie Farmer tart crust.
efgoldman
@trollhattan:
And not a nickel of tax money or subsidy should have gone to the fucking thing, either.
Laid their own bed….
Fuckem.
Brachiator
I still have a macabre fascination with this little Los Angeles area news story. I admit it makes me chuckle a bit, even though I have nothing but sympathy for the people involved.
I half expected to read that “a Detective Columbo has been assigned to investigate the case.”
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
It’s kind of a jerk move to kill yourself in a public place.
A Ghost to Most
@
Mnemosyne:
This really doesn’t narrow the pool much.
busybody
I swear by the vodka. It always works. I substitute 1/3 of the liquid with the vodka My problem with pie crust was either having it wet enough to handle easily and turn out tough or
too dry and not able to make it stay together when rolled. Adding the little extra liquid solved the problem.
Woodrowfan
somehow all this pastry talk made me think of this from DiscWorld
What about this one? Maids of Honor?
– Weeelll, they starts OUT as Maids of Honor…but they ends up Tarts.”
Iowa Old Lady
@stinger: I’ll be interested to hear how it comes out.
zhena gogolia
@JustRuss:
I’m sorry. I hope he comes home safe and sound! It’s agonizing, I know.
Betsy
I have a recipe for a “short crust” that is nice with strawberries. It doesn’t replicate a traditional piecrust, so most people wouldn’t want to use it for other types of pies (peach, apple, etc.) — but with strawberries, a shortbread crust is perfect.
And my native-Floridian family recipe for Key lime pie uses the same short crust as well. It’s different from the usual graham-crumb crust one expects with Key lime, but we just have always done it that way.
It’s also different in not having to be rolled out at all. You just press it into the pie pan. I’m glad to share if you think you would like to look at it.
NotMax
Never been much of a fan of dessert pies. Would walk over a dozen of them to get to a slab of cake. YMMV.
Now, when it comes to main courses that’s another matter. Shepherd’s pie rocks. Also have a treasured recipe for a tuna pie that uses pie crusts, can be eaten either hot or cold.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: How about Taj?
Bol Na Halke, halke Speak softly (tenderly)
Rahat Ali Khan’s voice, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy’s music, chronicles love between a Sikh man and a Muslim woman (shot in Delhi and Agra)
Awesome Mughal architecture is awesome.
? Martin
Wow, we may get to battle terrifying robot dinosaurs sooner than I thought.
That is seriously impressive stuff.
japa21
@Eric S.: I am listening to the therapist. There are times I fantasize about what I will do to him when this is over. Live in the NW suburbs of Chicago so El and walking are not options. My vehicle is an automatic and the shift is in a spot where I don’t have to stretch too much.
rikyrah
Trump urges insurers to work together to ‘save Americans from Obamacare’
By Carolyn Y. Johnson and Juliet Eilperin
February 27 at 12:19 PM
President Trump met with major health insurers Monday morning, in the midst of political divisions over how to dismantle and replace President Obama’s signature health-care law, the Affordable Care Act, and intensifying public pressure to preserve the policy.
The meeting included leaders from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Anthem, Kaiser Permanente and the industry lobbying group, America’s Health Insurance Plans.
“We must work together to save Americans from Obamacare,” Trump said in public remarks before the closed-door meeting. He criticized the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, for creating minimal health coverage requirements that restricted the types of plans insurers could sell.
“Obamacare forced providers to limit the plan options they offered to patients and caused them to drive prices way up,” Trump said. “Now a third of U.S. counties are down to one insurer, and the insurers are fleeing. You people know that better than anybody.”
Over the past month, more insurers have warned that they are pulling out next year or considering it — and Aetna chief executive Mark Bertolini has described the exchanges as being in a “death spiral.”
Humana — which insures about 150,000 people on the exchanges this year — announced in mid-February it would exit the exchanges in 2018. In an earnings call, Molina Healthcare disclosed that its exchange business lost $110 million in 2016 and said it would evaluate its participation for next year on a state-by-state basis. A Molina spokeswoman said the company, which insures 1 million members through the exchanges, was not invited to the meeting.
Trump gave few details about his health-care plan, which he promised would increase competition and decrease costs. He said the replacement would allow insurers to sell plans across state lines and include increased flexibility for states. He also called for expanded health savings accounts, which are tax-exempt financial accounts used to pay for medical expenses. He said there would be a smooth transition.
Betty Cracker
@Shell: The strawberries don’t get baked in my recipe — half of them are placed into the pre-baked pie crust raw, and the other half are mashed up with sugar in a saucepan and boiled. Then I mix some cornstarch and water and add it to the saucepan and stir it until it thickens and pour it over the raw strawberries and chill. The strawberry filling is perfect, if I do say so myself; it’s the crust I can’t seem to get right. I blame the humidity.
stinger
@Betsy: I’d love to see the receet!
Betty Cracker
@Betsy: That sounds intriguing — please do share when you have a moment, please and thank you.
Betty Cracker
@JustRuss: Aw man. I hope he turns up safe and sound!
A Ghost to Most
Wapo
Iowa Old Lady
Mr IOL used to make a strawberry pie with a graham cracker crust. That was the only thing you baked. Once it was done, you spread a thin layer of sweetened cream cheese and then put the raw berries. Then you poured the gel you make with water, sugar, etc. Once it’s set, it’s delicious.
aimai
@Brachiator: I was thinking it sounds like Curt Schilling’s gamer boondoggle and the Rhode Island rip off. It turns out to be harder than (idiots) think to make a really great product, like disney world, that really makes a ton of money. Just as its really hard to make a breakout game that millions of people want to play. Its not something for amateurs to dabble in, and its not a slam dunk for cities/states to invest in.
Betsy
@stinger: @Betty Cracker: sure thing. Have to retrieve paper copy. also, I just realized also how insufferable the tone of my comment sounds. *blaugh*
Betsy
@Iowa Old Lady: that sounds familiar!! only we made it with cherry filling and called it Cherry-O Pie, I think.
stinger
@Iowa Old Lady: I’ve had that! (Possibly not made by Mr. IOL himself.)
Lurking Canadian
@trollhattan: Yep. Unless your guests are vegetarian, lard now, lard tomorrow, lard forever!
It works mechanically the same way Crisco does, but it makes your pastry taste like pastry.
Betsy
@Betty Cracker: omg that sounds sooo ooo ooo delicious.
A Ghost to Most
Any chance Nunes could be bounced in 2018?
efgoldman
@aimai:
But… but… but…. it was saaaacred… and… and… hoooleeeee… and… and… gaaawdlyyyyyy….
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
If he intended to kill himself, I doubt that he would have been in a stable frame of mind to consider such things.
chris
Bill Nye went to the Ark. Enjoy.
Pogonip
@? Martin: Does the vodka go into you or the pie?
Iowa Old Lady
@stinger: @Betsy: Sadly, we don’t bake much any more because there’s just the two of us now and we eat it and get fat.
Aleta
@Betsy: yes please
sheila in nc
I’ve been collecting piecrust recipes lately. One I’ve used lately is this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pie-crust-361794. But I was raised on Crisco and the Betty Crocker recipe book.
The key is to keep everything as cold as possible. That means, whether you are using butter or Crisco, it has to be refrigerated and not allowed to soften. That’s a pain when you’re trying to cut the shortening into the flour, but it makes all the difference. The cold factor is also why adding vodka works: the temperature of vodka/water can be lower and still be liquid than water alone. Some people like to use marble surfaces for rolling that can be pre-chilled. I’ve even done the workup in stages, putting the dough back in the fridge or even in the freezer at various points so that the butter doesn’t soften too much.
And, seriously, ask anyone in my family; they will tell you that my homemade piecrust is the absolute best. If I do say so myself.
Betsy
@Aleta: OK!! will post
Brachiator
@aimai:
Even the original Disneyland was not a slam dunk. Everyone thought it would fail.
And opening day was a disaster.
But hope springs eternal, and many people who try to do these types of projects hope that they will get lucky.
Aleta
@Iowa Old Lady: The soul dog made friends with an older German couple who live on his route to the park. (Now he sits down in front of their house, and won’t go on until they come out to say hello. They love it.) Anyway, a few months ago they started showing up at our door after dinner with slices of pie or a piece of whatever they’ve baked that day for themselves.
cosima
We have no Crisco here. We have goose fat (lard). I’ve not been able to bring myself to sub it in for a pie crust. I might be able to find it on amazon, though. I’ve asked for a stand mixer for my birthday — we’ll see if my husband comes through.
I have good news! Our lab, Lola, had TPLO surgery to repair a ruptured cruciate ligament a few months ago. If you’ve experienced that with your own dog, you know the drill. If not, here’s a brief summary: 4 weeks zero exercise, confined to small area, on the lead to toilet to ensure no running around. Weeks 4-6 = 15 minute walks 2-3x/day. Weeks 6-12 = 30 minute walks 1-2x/day. Lola slipped her lead at about week 7, and ran away into the forest, was limping, so I cut her back to no exercise for a couple of weeks, then 10-20 minute walks since then, depending on how I feel she’s getting around. With a 1-1/2 year old lab you’re talking about total stir-crazy (for her and me). So, today she went to the surgeon for a follow up appointment, and she can begin to be exercised off the lead in two weeks! All has healed exactly as it should and she is in excellent shape. She & I are so happy!
Soon she & I will be walking the highlands again. This is what passes for excitement for me these days.
Brachiator
@Pogonip:
I imagine that if you drink the vodka, however the pie turns out will be fine.
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: My friend made a blueberry pie that way once. Baked shell and fresh berries not cooked, glazed over. I liked it much better than cooked ones.
? Martin
@Pogonip: Usually both, TBH.
EricNNY
2.5 cups flour
.5 lb. lard
1.5 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. white vinegar
.5 cup milk
This is truly foolproof. You can mess the roll up, squeeze it back into a ball and roll it again. Plus it’s delicious.
Juju
My pie crust is a recipe that was my grandma’s, and I think she got it from a Crisco can. I had to adapt it when they took the transfats out of Crisco by adding a tablespoon of butter. It’s a very simple recipe. A single 10″ crust calls for 1 cup all purpose flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/3 cup Crisco only shortening plus1tblsp unsalted butter, the butter should be chilled, 1 Tblsp sugar (optional), and 3 Tblsp very cold water. Mix flour, salt, sugar, and shortening/butter in bowl with a pastry blender or two serving forks until you have course pea sized crumbs. Sprinkle water over crumbs and blend until a ball of dough forms. Do not over work. I’ve never rested or chilled the dough before rolling, unless it’s a very hot day, but if it is, the AC is on, so it doesn’t really matter. Bake 400 15-20 minutes or until golden or according to pie recipe you are using. A pastry blender is a handled device with a U shape. The U part is made of thick multiple wires or dull U shaped blades connected to the handle. It’s what my grandma always used and I have and use hers. It’s the best thing for making a pie crust. I’d never use a food processor. It’s too easy to over mix. This recipe can be doubled.
Aleta
@JustRuss: Sorry to hear that. Since he may have gone nocturnal, sleeping during the day, you could try calling him at dusk or dawn or at different times than you have been. Tapping a can or other reverberating metal with a fork while you call helps carry sound farther away.
? Martin
@A Ghost to Most: He won his race by 30 points in a part of California that best resembles Texas. Put another way, if we can flip Nunes, there’ll hardly be any Republicans left in DC.
efgoldman
@Brachiator:
I remember the Walt-led “Disneyland” construction and tour TV special. I was ten or eleven.
Wasn’t Ronnie Raygun the program host?
Shell
And lets not even mention Jurassic Park.
Brachiator
@efgoldman:
Yep. Here’s a clip</a>.
JustRuss
@aimai: To be fair to Schilling and Co., they hired some first-rate talent and did come up with a pretty darn good game. Then released it a couple months before a competitor released one of the most highly anticipated and successful games in the history of the genre, which was quite an own-goal. Despite that, the game still did pretty well. It was their follow-up that was a disaster.
Thanks for the all posts re our kitteh. I did have a cat turn up after being MIA for a week once before, hope history repeats itself.
stinger
@Lurking Canadian: It’s pretty hard to find good lard these days. I don’t mean that ironically or snarking or anything.
stinger
@Iowa Old Lady: There’s just the one of me, so I don’t bake pies as often as I’d like!
stinger
@cosima: Walking the highlands. Sigh.
HeidiMom
@JustRuss: That’s one of the worst feelings in the world, Russ. One of our two indoor-only cats, Misty, went missing in early November of 2014 after the carrier we were using to take her to the vet fell apart. We immediately did the usual — put up posters with her photo, put a notice in the local paper’s lost-and-found section, knocked on doors in the neighborhood, etc. Since we live in a six-building apartment complex, we thought it wouldn’t be very long before someone saw her and we could track her down. Wrong! We got her back in the first week of January 2015, in a Havahart trap that we’d been putting food in for weeks. She was down to 6 1/2 pounds from almost 13, she’d contracted an infection, and her loud, ever-active voice sounded more like a duck’s quack than a cat’s meow, but that’s not too bad considering the cold and windy weather she’d lived through. We decided on the Havahart after learning online that indoor-only cats who go missing generally don’t go very far — they hunker down and try to keep themselves alive, and they may be too overwhelmed by the new and scary environment to risk showing themselves to people. I know that your situation is different with an indoor-outdoor cat, but maybe putting out a humane trap with food would allow him to take refuge if he makes his way back. Wishing you all the best.
evodevo
@Miss Bianca: They are charging $40 apiece for adults … most fundie rednecks I know couldn’t afford to go there more than once, and there aren’t enough of them in the state to keep something like this going lol
karen marie
Betty, I have found the real key to a great pie crust is letting it rest for some period of time in the fridge – the longer the better, apparently. I make a standard all butter crust, using my food processor – boom, it’s a ball of dough. I discovered the benefits of aging accidentally — I made the dough, got bored with the idea of making a pie, and didn’t come back to the dough in the fridge until two days later. The crust on that pie was spectacular.
retiredeng
@Iowa Old Lady: This is my mother-in-law’s pie crust recipe. It’s easy except for the crucial step.
Alice’s Fool Proof Pie Crust
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cool water
3/4 cups shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg scrambled (just egg no water)
Put 2 cups of flour in a large bowl. Put 1/3 cup flour in a small bowl and add 1/4 cup cool water and make a paste.
Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder to the large bowl containing the flour and mix well. Add 3/4 cups shortening to the large bowl and…
This is a crucial step. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a knife. This is a labor intensive step but necessary for great pie crust. Cut with the knife until the mixture is fine granules.
When the flour and shortening is fully mixed, pour in the flour and water paste and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough is formed. Dough may be used immediately or refrigerated wrapped in plastic wrap for use later.
This makes two crusts for bottom and top of a pie. For no top crust, use 1/2 the dough and save the other 1/2.
If there’s a top crust, paint the top with egg using a pastry brush before baking.
A typical fruit pie is baked at 425 deg for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350 deg until pie is done. Golden brown on the top.
RAM
We’ve been down in Cape Coral for the past month and my wife made one of those strawberry pies every week. It’s handy we can get sugar-free glaze down here, and as long as the frozen pie crust has lard in it, I’m good to go. The berries from Plant City are wonderful; won’t get that quality in Illinois until June, and unfortunately, we’re heading back north tomorrow. Although thanks to global climate change northern Illinois just had the warmest February ever, so I’ve got that going for me I guess.
low-tech cyclist
@PaulW:
It sure does! We’re missing it this year, unfortunately. Maybe next year.
Betty, are you going?
sheila in nc
Also, I should have said up front, your pie looks beautiful and scrumptious!
Betsy
@Betty Cracker: @stinger: @Aleta: Here is the piecrust recipe for what I call a “short crust,” or cookie crust that is like a shortbread cookie.
Sweet Pie Crust
Used for Cream Cheese Cherry-O Pie and Key Lime or Calamondin Pie
Makes 1 crust
2 Tbsp sugar
1 stick butter or margarine, softened (not melted)
1 cup unsifted flour
Work with fingers. Blend well. Pat and tease into a pie pan to fit properly. (A glass pie pan lets you see that you have patted it to an even thickness, when held up to the light.) Or roll between waxed paper and peel off into 8” pie pan. (Chill in refrigerator until it can be peeled off, if necessary.) Prick crust well with fork, and bake in 300 degree oven until lightly browned, about 10-15 minutes. Watch carefully as it “burns as easily as cookies” according to Granny. After a few minutes in the oven, see if it sags; if so, press it gently back up the sides before it sets. Remove from oven and let cool before filling.
Chris T.
Avoid margarine or anything with trans fats. While small amounts in your diet (as found in, e.g., dairy) are something a normal, healthy liver will handle, larger amounts are pretty clearly not good for you. See http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/OilsFats/content.cfm?ItemNumber=39223 or the more digestible (ahem) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat
Windpond
If you can read, that’s the only requirement for Julia Child’s Pate Brisee Ordinaire. The ingredients, measurements and directions are specific for a reason. That way there is no guesswork, no failure.
3.5 cups all purpose flour
2-1/4 sticked butter cube
5 T crisco
2 t salt
1/4 t sugar
3/4 to 1C ice water
In Kitchenaid, fit with paddle attachment, combine flour, salt and sugar for 5 seconds. Add butter cubes and Crisco. Blend at medium speeded mixing until ingredients start to bind. With motor on low, stream ice water until mixture balls up – stop motor immediately.
Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface, divide dough into thirds. Pat dough out into 4″ discs, then wrap each disc individually with plastic wrap. Place discs in zip lock bag and freeze.
When ready to use, roll disc into approximately 12″ circle, roll up, carefully put in pie plate, unroll, bake as either single or double crust, filled pie at about 350 degrees depending on filling.
laura
@NotMax: I NEED that tuna pie recipe yesterday.
Back in the day Safeway sold frozen tuna pies and they rocked. No mas, as they have discontinued almost all their store brands.
Please share and you’ll have my eternal gratitude.
Betty Cracker
@Betsy: I’m going to try that. Thank you!
NotMax
@laura
Hope you see this, as it is a very late reply.
Tuna Pie
Pastry for 2 crust pie (frozen, thawed crusts work just fine)
½ cup chopped celery
1 small onion, minced
2 tbl. butter or shortening
3 tbl. flour
2 cups milk ((evaporated milk makes for a silkier sauce)
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 7 oz. cans tuna, drained and coarsely chopped
½ cup diced cooked potatoes
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
Line pie pan with one crust.
Saute celery and onion in butter until soft and onion is translucent, stir in flour
Lower heat a tad, add milk, then bouillon cube; cook, stirring constantly while simmering, until quite thick and smooth
Stir in tuna, potatoes, eggs.
Pour into prepared pie pan with crust.
Cover with 2nd crust, seal and flute edges and poke a few holes in top with fork for steam venting.
Bake in 450 degree oven for 10 minutes, then reduce to 400 degrees and bake 20 minutes additional.
Let stand after removing from oven for a short interval so everything can set.
Serve slices, either hot or cold.
Note: have also made this with shredded chicken and it came out fine (added a dash of cayenne to the sauce while it cooked) but not as toothsome as with the tuna.
Jeremy
Ive always hated the drama around pie crusts. “It’s easy!” they all say. Ice, butter, careful handling… I hated pie crusts.
Then I found this no-drama recipe:
190 grams of flour
1 tbsp (rounded) sugar
pinch salt
120 ml (about ½ a cup) vegetable oil
2 tbsp milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees (200 Celsius).
Place all ingredients into a 9 inch pie pan.
Stir all together with a fork.
Pat mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan.
Poke holes in the bottom and sides with a fork.
Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown.