Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Friday, July 04, 2008
Making crust really can be as easy as pie
A three-ingredient recipe sounds simple, almost foolproof … until a novice baker tries to combine a fat, a liquid and a flour for the perfect pie crust.
Instead of flaky and flavorful, crusts can be tough, tasteless, soggy, thick or trashed before baking because the dough was too sticky or too crumbly to roll.
Certified master baker Punky Egan comes to the rescue with her recipe and tips, saving beginners from dragging the season’s farm-fresh berry fillings down a notch with store-bought crusts. Owner of Sucre, a patisserie and dessert lounge in Madison, she knows what can go wrong with a recipe that seems as easy as 1-2-3: 1 part water, 2 parts fat, 3 parts flour.
The directions she provides here are for flaky crusts.
A mealy crust, better for protecting bottom crusts from fillings such as pumpkin, involves making a paste out of the flour and fat (creamed or mixed with the flour until more like cornmeal) before adding the water, which creates a fat barrier to keep the filling from soaking into the crust.
“It’s a trickier process,” said Egan, who also is a pastry chef instructor at Madison Area Technical College. She offers a simple answer for bakers lacking that kind of training: “Just eat the pie faster. That’s the best solution to a soggy crust.“
Ingredients and measurements
Weighing with a kitchen scale yields accurate amounts, which could be off a few critical ounces when measuring with cups.
INGREDIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS
Fat:
Lard, the old-fashioned choice, makes the flakiest crust, but some object to the flavor.
Shortening makes dough easy to work with but lacks the flavor of butter or lard.
Margarine containing trans fats isn’t what Egan considers a healthy, natural food.
Butter yields a high-quality crust with a nutty flavor that develops as the crust browns. To keep it from melting during the mixing, start with cold butter and work quickly.
Flour:
Pastry flour, which is a low-protein flour, makes the best crusts.
Whole-wheat pastry flour adds flavor but won’t be as flaky.
All-purpose flour is fine for home bakers, although commercial bakers wouldn’t use this blend of bread flour and cake flour.
Unbleached all-purpose flour is better because bleaching changes the taste and softens the gluten. When choosing all-purpose unbleached flour, check labels of various brands to find one with less protein.
Liquid:
Cold tap water is added last. Because Egan uses unsalted butter, she puts a pinch of salt in the water before adding it to the butter-flour mixture.
Cream, which some recipes call for instead of water, makes a crust that’s tender but perhaps too rich and not as flaky as one with water.
Vinegar, added to soften flour in the days when protein content was inconsistent, no longer is necessary.
MIXING TIPS
Tools for cutting cold butter into flour include a pastry blender, two knives, a fork or a food processor, but Egan prefers her fingers.
Stop mixing before the butter melts or gets too much of crumb. Bits of butter should be visible.
When adding water, mix lightly just until incorporated.
Pat dough into a flat disc, cover with plastic wrap and stash in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes or until firm enough to roll.
ROLLING ALONG
Formica is fine as a surface.
Heft helps in a rolling pin so you don’t need as much muscle. Egan’s tool of choice is a heavy maple pin.
Cloth on the rolling pin is just one more thing to clean so skip it and use lots of flour instead.
Liberally sprinkle your rolling surface, rolling pin and the top and bottom of the dough with flour.
Roll a few times straight ahead, and then to the right and left, turning the crust a couple of times so it doesn’t stick.
If crust sticks to the surface, lift it up and dust underneath with flour.
If dough seems too sticky to roll, reform into a disc and return to the freezer a bit longer.
Roll crust to about 1/16-inch thick, about the thickness of a spatula. Thicker crust tends to remain underdone.
To figure out how big a circle you need, flip the pie tin upside down on the rolled-out dough and use your finger to “measure” the depth of the pan to estimate the size needed.
Use a soft pastry brush to remove excess flour from the top of the rolled crust.
For double crust pies, cut a half-inch circle (or some other shape) out of the center of the top crust to let juices escape. Also cut slits if you like, although these usually bake shut and are more decorative than functional.
Brush the top crust lightly with milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar for shine.
Any leftover pie dough can be frozen for later use.
PIE PANS
Glass pie pans won’t yield a browned bottom crust.
Aluminum or stainless pans work well.
Darker metal yields a darker crust.
Set the pie tin directly on the oven rack rather than on a baking pan, which would slow the heat transfer.
If drips from a fruit pie are a problem, slip a piece of aluminum foil under the pie tin near the end of the baking time.
PAN-LESS PIES
If you don’t have a pan or don’t want to make an entire 8- or 9-inch pie, make a galette, which is a free-form pie: Roll out a piece of pie crust dough on parchment paper, top with the filling in the center, pinch the sides up and slide the paper onto a pan to bake at 400 to 425 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes or until the fruit gets bubbly and tender and the crust takes on color.
MAXIMUM PLEASURE WITH MINIMUM WORK
Make a large quantity of crust dough to have on hand. Weigh out portions of dough, with 7 or 8 ounces alotted for a double crust 9-inch pie (expert bakers would need less than novices, who waste some dough by rolling ovals instead of circles). Shape portions into discs, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until needed, using within three or four months. To use, remove a disc from the freezer about 20 minutes before rolling.
Punky Egan’s 1-2-3 Pie Crust Recipe
For an 8-inch double crust pie:
6 ounces unbleached all-purpose or pastry flour (see notes)
4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
2 ounces water with a pinch of salt added (see notes)
OR
For a 9-inch double-crust pie (with leftovers):
9 ounces unbleached all-purpose or pastry flour
6 ounces cold unsalted butter
3 ounces water with a pinch of salt
Cut butter into flour until pea-size chunks of butter remain. Lightly mix in water. Shape dough into disc, wrap in plastic wrap and put in freezer for 10 to 15 minutes before rolling. (For the strawberry pie recipe here, use only half this dough and keep the rest in the freezer until needed.)
Notes: Four ounces would be about a cup of flour so 6 ounces would be about 1 1/2 cups, but measurements vary so weighing with a kitchen scale is recommended. Two ounces of water would be 1/4 cup water, although a drop more may be needed depending on the flour used; all-purpose, for example, will absorb more water than pastry flour.
Fresh Strawberry Pie
Dough for a 9-inch single crust pie
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (optional)
Roll the dough into a circle; place into a 9-inch pie tin, easing it into place (without stretching the dough) and making sure the dough is flat against the side of the tin. Trim excess from the edge and crimp the edge. Prick the crust bottom with a fork and put it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes before baking.
Line the crust with foil and fill with dry beans, uncooked rice or pie weights to keep the bottom from puffing. Bake the crust in a preheated 425-degree F oven for 12 to 15 minutes until crust is set. Remove it from the oven, remove the foil and whatever used for weights; brush with beaten egg yolk and return it to the oven to bake for another 4 to 8 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Remove it from the oven and let cool before filling.
For the filling, arrange half the strawberries in the cooled baked pastry shell. Mash remaining berries and combine with sugar in a medium saucepan. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water; gradually stir into boiling strawberry mixture. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour mixture over berries in pastry shell. Chill for several hours before serving.
If desired, whip cream until soft peaks form and serve each slice of pie with a dollop of whipped cream.
Adapted from allrecipes.com
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