Joy the Baker » pie dough

How to Make a Double Crusted Pie

joythebaker — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:05:51 +0000

Hey… remember that time I made a giant mess of my kitchen counter, spilling water and flour and butter every where while making a pie crust?

What? I wore my big ghetto hoop earrings! I made a big ol’ mess! You don’t remember?

Fine… lucky for you, Jill and I made a video of the whole extravaganza.

That’s right. It’s Bake Out time again.

If you haven’t yet made a big fruity summer pie, might I suggest you do so pronto? That means like… right now. This weekend. Get on it.

For you pie pleasure, I’d like to humbly offer you this Blueberry Blackberry Pie or the Strawberry Banana Cream Pie. Equally lovely. Please consider the goodness then get in the kitchen and.. go.

Ps. I like you.

How To Make Pie Crust… do it.

joythebaker — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 06:33:02 +0000

We’ve talked about pie crust before, you and I.

I thought today might be a good day for a little refresher. The breeze outside is mighty fine, the sun seems pretty friendly, I’ve got chilled butter in the fridge, and… tomorrow I want to show you how to make a double crusted berry pie… so let’s nail this pie crust first.

Can we do this? Of course we can. I’ll talk you through it and leave hella directions for you to print out. Yes, hella. High five.

Any respectable pie crust has butter. Lots of butter. Lots of cold cold cold butter.

I’ve cut up our two sticks of cold butter into cold cubes and tossed them with the dry ingredients.

Next… dump the whole dang thing on the tabletop. The whole dang thing. Don’t be scared. We’re in this together.

Bust out that rolling pin. I use the rolling pin to flatten out the cold butter cubes and incorporate them into the dry ingredients. Some people use their fingers. Some people use a pastry cutter. Other people use a food processor. Sure… but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

Roll the loose dry ingredients and the cold butter, using your hands or a bench knife to pile up the mixture and roll it out again. The goal here is to make flattened sheets of cold butter within the flour mixture.

Like this! I’ve put it all back in the bowl. I used my hands to do this. I also made a little well in the center of the butter and flour mixture. That’s where I’m going to pour in the cold buttermilk. Mmmm.

Believe it or not this is the dough after I’ve added the cold buttermilk. But it’s so shaggy!? Yes… yes it is. It’ll all come together. It just needs a good pressing together and an hour long rest in the refrigerator.

I’ve divided the dough into two rough balls.

Wrap the balls in waxed paper and place in the fridge for at least an hour. Resting the dough like this is super important. It helps the butter re-chill which is important when it comes to rolling out and baking the dough aaand the rest helps the liquid incorporate properly into the dough.

Chilled dough disk on a well floured surface just before the rolling out process. I’ll sprinkle flour on top too before I attack this thing with the rolling pin.

Rolled out.

Panned up and trimmed.

This particular pie crust was for an Apple Pie.

Once the top crust is rolled out and placed over the filling, trim the excess dough so that there’s about 1/2 to 1-inch of extra crust.

Pinch the extra dough together with your fingers or with the tines of a fork. Make a pretty pattern.

Not so bad… right? Tomorrow we throw berries in the mix. Prepare.

Buttermilk Pie Crust

makes a double crusted 9-inch pie crust

Print this Recipe!

2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter

2 1/2 (12 ounces) cups all purpose flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (5 to 6 ounces) buttermilk

1. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes. Measure out the buttermilk and store in the refrigerator to keep it cold (you could even put it in the freezer for a few minutes too).

2. Sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Take the cold butter from the freezer and toss it with the flour mixture.

3. Dump the cold butter cubes and flour mixture onto a large work area for rolling. With a rolling pin, roll the mixture, flattening the butter cubes with the flour into long, thin, floured butter sheets. Work quickly to ensure that the butter stays cold. Below is what the rolled butter and flour look like after I’

ve gathered them together on the work surface a bit.

4. Place the flour and flattened butter back in the large bowl and chill for 10 minutes. When the butter is cold, remove the bowl from the refrigerator, make a small well in the center of the flour and butter mixture. Add the cold buttermilk to the bowl all at once. Begin to bring the dough together with one hand ( keep the other hand free to answer the phone). Moisten all of the flour with the milk, using your hand to break up large clumps of milk and flour. The dough will be rather shaggy, but you can add another tablespoon of buttermilk, if you see that all your flour isn’t moistened. Form the dough into two disks. The disks will be rough, and hard to shape together, but once they rest in the fridge for an hour, they’

ll be easier to roll out.

5. Chill the dough for at least an hour in the refrigerator. At this point, the dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three weeks. For freezing, roll the dough out into sheets and wrap them in plastic film.

6. Roll out the top crust large enough to cut a 12-inch circle.

Transfer the pie filling mixture to the pie shell. Moisten the border of the bottom crust by brushing it lightly with water and place the top crust over the filling. Trim the overhang of the top crust so that there is only 1/2-inch of overhand. Tuck the overhand under the bottom crust boarder and press down all around to seal it. Crimp the border using a fork or your fingers and make about 5 evenly spaced 2-inch slashes starting about 1 inch from the center of the pie and radiating toward the edge. Cover the pie loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 1 hour before baking. This will chill and relax the pastry, preventing shrinking.

Easy No-Roll Pie Crust

joythebaker — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:55:27 +0000

Friends.

This is important.

I need you to hold your pinky up for me. We’re about to make a very important promise to one another.

I need you to promise me that you’ll never. ever.. ever… ever buy a store-bought pre-made pie crust again. Don’t do it. Promise me.

Those store bought pie crusts are full of all sorts of mystery fats, trans fats, dirty fats, mean fats… you don’t want all that mess in your pie!

Besides… I’ve come up with the pie crust recipe of your dreams. Seriously. Fluff the ingredients in a bowl, throw in some moisture, then press the dough directly into your pie pan. No chilling. No rolling. No stress. I’m looking out for you.

If you’re scared of pie, I’ve got you’re back…. promise… lemme show you.

The problem that I have with most No-Roll Pie Crust recipes on the Internet is that all of them simply use oil as the fat. Where’s the butter? Let’s not shun butter just because we’re not rolling the pie dough out! Butter is an important part of pie dough. It lends a little lift and loads of flavor.

My No-Roll Pie Crust recipe is a brilliant compromise. I mixed cold butter with vegetable (I used almond) oil, and the secret ingredient: a touch of cream cheese for binding and creamy flavor. The result is a crust somewhere in between a pie crust and a tart shell. It’s slightly sweet, browns beautifully, has a lovely hint of butter and a crisp texture from the oil. This dough is perfect for a custard pie or a pumpkin pie.

To pre-bake the pie crust for a chocolate cream or banana cream pie, line the chilled pie crust with foil, weigh down with beans and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes covered. Remove the foil and beans and bake for 4-6 minutes uncovered until golden brown.

If you don’t need to pre-bake the shell, chill the pie crust in the pie plate in the freezer while you make the pie filling. Buttermilk Pie with Warm Blackberry Sauce? Yum. Pumpkin Pie!? Heck yes! Coming soon!

Remember… this is only a bottom crust recipe. A top crust would involve some rolling, which would involve a different recipe. We’re keeping it simple.

What’s in my quick pie crust today!? A Good Old Fashioned Sugar Pie.

Easy No-Roll Pie Crust

makes 1 9-inch pie crust

Print this Recipe!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup (4 Tablespoon) frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used almond oil)

1 Tablespoon cream cheese, at room temperature

2 Tablespoons cold milk

In a medium sized bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Whisk together.

Add frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater and tablespoon of cream cheese. With your fingers, work the cream cheese and butter into the flour mixture, breaking the butter and cream cheese up until they’re in well incorporated into the flour. Some butter bits will be tiny, other the size of small peddles. The dough may even begin to some together in a rough, sandy kind of way.

Combine the milk and oil. Whisk together. Add all at once to the flour and butter mixture. With a fork, begin to combine the ingredients, making sure that all of the flour mixture is introduced to the liquid. The mixture does not need to come together into a ball. Leave it a bit shaggy and dump the dough into a clean 9-inch pie plate. With your fingers, press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides. Try to get the dough as even as possible, but don’t worry too much about finger indentations. You can’t fight that.

Place the prepared crust in the freezer while you preheat the oven and prepare your filling. If you’re going to pre-bake your crust, heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line the chilled pie crust with foil, weigh down with beans and bake for 10 minutes covered. Remove the foil and beans and bake for 4-6 minutes uncovered until golden brown.

If you need an unbaked pie crust, simply remove the crust from the freezer once your filling is made, fill your pie and place in a preheated oven. Bake according to your particular recipe.

Good Old Fashioned Sugar Pie

from Sweets

makes 1 9-inch pie

Print this Recipe!

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 cups evaporated milk

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large saucepan, combine the granulated and brown sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, slat and nutmeg. Mix well. Add the eggs and yolk and combine well with a whisk. Gradually stir in the milk until well blended.

Turn the flame onto medium heat and cook ingredients, stirring constantly until the filling is thick and bubbly. This took me about 7 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract.

Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack until ready to serve. I like this pie best cold from the fridge.