What is it about pie crust that's so intimidating?
Is it knowing that you can just buy a frozen one and be done with it? Or all the lengthy essays about exactly how cold the butter should be and how much better your grandmother's homemade crust was? Whatever it is, pie crust is often held up as a holy grail, unattainable by most home cooks. And yet, it's really not all that hard.
Here are the basics: cold butter, plan ahead, and pie weights.
Here's what not to do: freak out because you've developed a pie-crust phobia built on unexamined notions of what a 'real' baker would do so you just can't handle it, buy a store bought pie and regret the ingestion of soggy lard-laden crust.
Here's the back-up plan: ready-made.
Let's start with the back-up plan because, really, ready-made has come a long way and we're busy people, right?
You can find ready-made crusts that are frozen, unbaked, and not full of lard or trans-fats. Check your organic or yuppie food-store of choice or the grocery store's freezer case. Yesterday's pumpkin pie recipe calls for a blind-baked crust. That's easy. Let your pie crust defrost on the counter for a while until it's firm, but not as hard as a rock. Put a piece of tinfoil over it and fill it with beans or pie weights. Bake according to the instruction for homemade crust (below). Voila: ready to fill. That was easy, wasn't it?
So, now you're ready for the homemade version, and you're not freaking out. Read this recipe a few times, get the process in your head and remember, it's all about keeping the butter cool and not working too hard at this. After all, if your great great grandmother had time to feed the hens, milk the cow and make an occasional pie-crust, she wasn't after perfection, right?
All-Butter Piecrust (one 9" crust)
The beauty of this crust is that you can make it well ahead of time and refrigerated it over night or freeze it (in a ball or rolled flat and ready to go) for up to 3 months. If you freeze it, just put it in the refrigerator the night before you plan to make your pie, and it’ll be ready to go. You can also make double the recipe for a pie with a lid.
1 1/3 cup (6 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp granulated sugar
3/8 tsp table salt
8 TBs (1 stick - 4 oz) cold unsalted butter cut into 3/4 –inch pieces. European style butter is denser and more tasty, but regular unsalted butter works too.
3-4 Tbs ice water
1. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Add the butter to the bowl and get ready to use your hands. Rub the cold chunks of butter between your fingertips, smearing the butter into the flour to create small (roughly ¼ inch) flakes of fat. Don't be a perfectionist here. The idea is to get the butter broken down into small flour-coated pieces (like oat-meal flakes) without melting it with your hands.
2. Drizzle 3 Tbs ice water over the flour mixture, Stir with a spatula or fork, adding 1 Tbs. more water if necessary, until the mixture forms a shaggy dough that’s moist enough to hold together when pressed between your fingers. There will be crumbly bits of flour in the bottom of the bowl and the dough may not have a consistent color or texture, don't worry. As long as it starts to hold together like old play-dough, you're good. It'll come together in the next step.
3. With well-floured hands, gently gather and press the dough together, and then form it into a disk with smooth edges. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour, but preferably 2 to 4 hours, before rolling. I usually have some edges and bits that don't quite cling together. Just put them in the ball, press it plastic wrap around it and chill. When you roll the dough out, it'll come together. Remember, cold butter trumps perfect looking dough at this stage.
4. Let the dough soften slightly at room temperature – it should be cold and firm, not rock hard.
5. Lightly flour the countertop and roll the dough from the center out, turning the disk of dough so you get a consistently circular shape. Since you're going to trim the edges, go for the right size in as few rolls as possible. The more you work the dough, the tougher it'll get. When it’s 13-14 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick, you're done. You'll notice as you roll that the dough takes on a 'normal' pie-dough consistency and all those little bits have become part of the crust. Congratulations! Reflour only as needed.
6. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate (I like the $3 metal ones with a wide lip). Don't stretch the dough as you put it in the pan. Trim the overhanging dough to 1 inch from the edge, roll the dough under itself into a cylinder that rests on the edge of the pan. Crimp. Look online for instructions for how to crimp.
7. Refrigerate until firm – 1 hour. Warning: no matter how tempted you are, do not skip this step! Remember: cold butter.
8. Bake at 425*F, lined with foil and dried beans or pie weights, for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake at 375*F another 5-7 minutes until the bottom looks dry but not quite done and the edges are light golden.
Fill according to the recipe and continue on to pie-bliss.
Great-great-grandma would be proud. If she had time. After all, she had a farm to run.
Happy baking!
Check out the pie crimping and decorative edges video at Fine Cooking (issue #101, on which I based this recipe) http://www.finecooking.com/pages/fc_onlineextras.asp
Also, Martha, love her or not, has some good videos online at: http://www.marthastewart.com/see-and-celebrate-thanksgiving
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