Pie Crust Making and IPC Holiday Hospitality 2011

“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness” ~Jane Austen

Last weekend, I participated in IPC's Second Annual Hospitality event by giving a quick tutorial on pie crust making. Along with a cooking demonstration, we also had flower arrangement and bow making classes as well.

Mr. Mitchell, our beloved retired banker-turned-florist, taught us how to make beautiful floral centerpieces.

Beautiful Leah learning how to make holiday bows from Mrs. Scott.

Here are few helpful tips you can use to make your pie making easier this holiday season...

Use a scale to measure your ingredients! This is the key to all baking success, especially when baking in large volume. Whether you are measuring flour, sugar, butter, or cocoa powder, a scale is the quickest way to get accurate amount the recipe calls for.

Click here to print a baking conversion chart.

Here are several choices of simple and inexpensive kitchen scales you can purchase online.

Chill your fats, by keeping shortening in the freezer (measure out, wrap and freeze ahead) and butter in the refrigerator until ready to process.

Use the food processor.

For quick blending of fats and flour, cut the butter and shortening into small chunks and "pulse" the mixture until coarse crumbles forms. (Don't over process!).

Wanna know a secret ingredient to making your pie crust flakey and light? Vodka....I know I am a church cook.....

With only 60% water, vodka gives supple and moist dough for easy for rolling with less gluten which makes the crust light and flakey without any alcohol taste. Give it a try, you will love the airy and scrumptious crust.

Roll out the dough on a cutting board and freeze before cutting the strips for lattice pies. The cuts will be crisp and neat.

Even though clear Pyrex pie dish is the best, when making several pies, use deep dish aluminum pans. Shape, cover well, and freeze until ready to bake.

And remember, the dough should be lightly handled, the less you knead the better. You want to keep the butter and shortening in dough cool as possible.

When you have pie crusts already made, making Classic Apple Pie is a snap....

And how about a pecan pie?

Cherry Pie? Easy as pie!

Here are the two must-have crust recipes:

Print This Recipe!

Fool Proof Pie Crust (Makes double crust)

Butter/Shortening Recipe

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12.5 ounces)
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (6 oz), cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening (3.2 oz) , cut into 2 pieces
1/4 cup vodka , cold
1/4 cup ice cold water

1. Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter and shortening and pulse 8-10 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with small pea size pieces of butter. Empty the mixture in a medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide and flatten dough into two 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. (Note: the dough will be very tacky, lightly flour when making dividing and flattening the discs)

3. Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes in order to soften just enough to make rolling out a bit easier. Roll out with a rolling pin on a floured surface to a 12-inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. If necessary, add a few sprinkles of flour under the dough to keep the dough from sticking. Carefully place onto a 9-inch pie plate. Gently press the pie dough down so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge of the pie dish.

4 Add filling to the pie.

5 Roll out second disk of dough, as before. Gently place onto the top of the filling in the pie. Gently pinch top and bottom of dough rounds firmly together, then trim excess dough with kitchen shears, leaving a 3/4 inch overhang. Fold the edge of the top piece of dough over and under the edge of the bottom piece of dough, pressing together. Flute edges using thumb and forefinger or press with a fork. Score the top of the pie with four 2-inch long cuts, so that steam from the cooking pie can escape.

Brush on egg white and sprinkle with white sugar right before baking yields glossy and beautiful crust when baked.

Print This Recipe!

Fran's No Fail Pie Crust

(All shortening recipe/makes double crust)

This is perfect when you need pre-baked crust for custard or chocolate pies.

You won't need pie weight when pre-baking this. Shape the dough in the pie pan, freeze at least an hour, pre-bake, then add your filling.

4 cups. all-purpose unbleached flour (20 oz)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Baking powder
2 cups of vegetable shortening (13 oz), freeze and cut into small pieces
1 egg
1 Tbsp vinegar
5 Tbsps. of ice cold water

1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add shortening and pulse 8-10 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Empty the mixture in a medium bowl.

2. In a small bowl, lightly beat egg, vinegar and cold water. Add to the coarse meal mixture and blend with a rubber spatula until mixture forms a supple dough. Divide dough in half, and shape into two 4-inch discs. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least one hour.

3. Roll out dough on a floured counter. Use as directed in pie recipe.

Brush on egg white and sprinkle with white sugar right before baking yields glossy and beautiful crust when baked.