Most pies begin with a crust; crusts are also the reason why most bakers hesitate to make pies at all. Crust making is definitely a craft; plenty of practice through many seasons and weather conditions is the best way to learn the ropes. Study this chapter and use it as a guide. In this chapter, we’ll address questions most often asked, show you helpful techniques, and give you some insights about the inner life of the crust. Temperature, humidity, and aridity can greatly affect the process and end results of crust making, and this chapter will also address how to factor in these variables. Like most serious pie bakers, we’ll discuss and debate fats—butter versus shortening versus lard, and so on—and show you how your choices affect your pie’s flavor and structure. When you become a good cook, you become a good craftsman, first. You repeat and repeat and repeat until your hands know how to move without thinking about it. —jacques pepin bubby’s homemade pie s Flaky pastry crusts—composed of flour, fat, water, and a pinch of salt— are our most versatile favorites and the surest choice for any classic double crust pie.The flavor of flaky pastry crust is influenced by the kind of fat you choose—most typically butter, lard, or shortening. Flaky crusts take practice to mix correctly, and benefit from good rolling technique and cool working temperatures or intermittent chilling. Fully baked, golden, flaky crusts offer a crisp, buttery contrast to fruit pie fillings, saucy savory pies, and cream pies alike and are an especially good choice for pies with juicy fillings that need to thicken up inside. There are many options for finishing off pastry crust edges and topping pies: double-crust vent slits, lattices, crisp toppings, and crumble toppings are but a few. We even give you tasty ideas for using your crust scraps to keep children (or adults) busy while the pies are baking. Slender open-faced tarts call for denser, more stable crust walls to support the filling when the freestanding tart is removed from the tart pan. Tart crusts are made with the same ingredients as flaky pastry, but with an egg added for structure (a classic French pâte brisée). If a little sugar is thrown into the dough to complement a sweet filling, the crust is considered a classic pâte sucrée (sweet). Tart crusts are easy to make in a food processor or electric mixer and are less sensitive to over mixing than flaky pastry crusts. Crumb crusts, made from crushed cookie crumbs and melted butter, are often used for ice cream, custard, and pudding pies; their sugary cookie crumbs cling to the rich creamy filling and remain flavorful when refrigerated or frozen. They are the easiest crusts to make in hot weather because they are made with melted butter. There is a wealth of information included here on how to be inventive with nut crusts, crumb crusts, and cookie crusts. The base cookie recipes are also included, since we find that using homemade cookies vastly improves the flavor of a homemade crumb crust. It’s Bubby’s aesthetic to make simple foods from scratch using quality ingredients. In the case of the crumb crusts, the flavor payoff is exponential.
Understanding the Structure of Flaky Pastry Pie Dough A flaky pastry pie crust is made of three parts flour, one part cold fat (lard and/or shortening), a pinch of salt, and just enough ice cold water added sparingly until the mixture coheres into a supple but firm ball of dough. Mixing dough seems simple and straightforward at first glance—and it is—but a pie baker needs to have a good grasp of the variables that yield good results. Mixing and rolling techniques, temperature, and weather conditions all shift the balance of the dough. Keeping everything in equilibrium takes practice. The fat in the dough must remain very cold, solid, and distinct from the flour and water that surrounds it in order to correctly form a light, flaky crust. Cold butter is essential to a flaky crust. When the fat is cut into the flour and salt, the largest pieces of fat should be about the size of shelling peas; the smallest pieces of fat should be no smaller than lentils. Don’t over mix the butter into the flour. Here’s why: When you roll out the pastry dough, those cold, solid, and distinct little pea-sized pieces of fat flatten into disks between the floury layers. When the pie goes into the oven, the fatty layers heat up and expand open with steam to form a pocket. These airy pockets set amid the floury layers make the finished crust light and flaky. A warm room temperature can make the separation of fat and flour layers difficult to maintain on a hot summer day (or in a commercial kitchen). It might be a comfort to know that centuries of pie bakers have struggled 4 bubby’s homemade pie s with the same dilemma, especially before refrigerators came along. Old recipes call for mixing dough in a cold room or cellar. Factor in more time for dough making in the summer to allow for chilling and rechilling everything, and keep your hands, ingredients, and implements as cool as possible. If the butter softens or melts into the flour during the mixing process, the flour essentially becomes waterproofed and will repel the water when you add it, making your crust mealy and dense instead of flaky and light. (Make the dough the day before if you need to take some pressure off yourself in a hot kitchen.) Great pie dough can still be achieved on a hot day if you take time to chill things between each step or whenever you notice the fat softening up. Chilling relaxes the dough and slows down the gluten development; it also makes the butter lumps colder so they remain distinct when rolled out. Acidity also inhibits gluten development, which is why some pie-crust recipes have lemon juice or vinegar in them. However, good technique can accomplish the same result. Rolling out the dough takes practice, and requires a fast, light, even touch. Pie dough can only be rolled out once for best results, otherwise the gluten in the flour gets overdeveloped and forms little elastic strands— resulting in a tough, leathery crust. When gluten has been over stimulated through rigorous mixing or overly warm, overly wet dough conditions, the dough (more precisely, the gluten in it) is considered “overworked.” Dough scraps can be cut into interesting shapes and used to decorate the top crust, or they can be used for making little snacks we call Cinnamon and Sugar Scrap Buddies (page 22), but they are not suited to reuse or reroll for a top or bottom crust.
Choosing Flour For pie pastry, use all-purpose unbleached white flour. The gluten in all purpose flour is an ideal proportion for pastry-making; it’s like the thin muscle in the floury layers of a crust’s structure. If there is little or no gluten in the flour, as in cake flour, rice flour, or nut flours, the crust will crumble when rolled and the flour layers won’t have the tension and flexibility Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 5 needed to stretch around the fats as they expand during the cooking process. Use flour with too much gluten, however, and your layers will have too much muscle. If you’ve ever used bread flour for a pie crust by mistake, you’ll recall its unpleasant, unpalatable, bready, cracker-like texture and flavor. Pastry flour is acceptable for pie dough but, despite its name, it’s a distant second choice to all-purpose flour due to its heavier, crumblier texture. This texture issue is also the case with whole wheat, spelt, oat, and other whole-grain flours. If you want to experiment with them, it’s better to do so in a short crust or nut cookie crust where the gluten has a less significant role to play.
Handling and Choosing FatsFats hold the key to both the flavor and the texture of a crust. The better the fat flavor, the better the crust flavor. A flaky crust can be achieved with any fat, as long as proper consideration is shown to keeping the fat cool and well below its melting temperature. The reputations fats have among pie bakers (as easy or hard to work with, flakiest, etc.) have much to do with their different melting temperatures. This is the case for two reasons: It is necessary to keep fat in its solid state during mixing and rolling to achieve a desirable crust texture and structure; solid fat softens easily at room temperature. The way to address this dilemma is by factoring in the behavior of the kind fat you’re using and taking adequate precautions— typically, chilling the dough intermittently. There are many options for fat in pie dough, but the most common are butter, lard, and shortening. Whatever fat you choose, it should be very cold when it is mixed into the dough.
Butter This fat, especially high fat–content “European-style” butter (more than 80% butterfat, and less than 20% water), is the best for pie crusts. Lower-quality butter can have a lower ratio of butterfat to water content and milk solids (as low as 60/40), which means you won’t get optimum flavor from it. However, a crust made with low-quality butter is still pretty flavorful, much more so than a shortening crust. Butter softens 6 bubby’s homemade pie s quickly at room temperature and can be a little tricky to work with on a warm day, but it adds wonderful flavor and texture to a pie crust. Never use whipped butter or margarine for pastry.
Lard This fat has a wonderful reputation among pie bakers for its flavor, texture, and stable structure, especially when it’s organic or rendered from hogs raised on small farms with good husbandry practices. Lard is magnificent for pies because it is 100% pure fat (no water) with a wonderful flavor. Look for organic “leaf lard”—the best-quality lard from around the kidneys—at the local farmer’s market, a family-owned butcher shop, or online. It is normal for rendered leaf lard to be sold with some fatback mixed in, but it should be primarily leaf lard. Organic lard has a better flavor than commercial lard, but there are other important reasons for choosing it. Commercially produced supermarket-variety lard is sometimes hydrogenated and may have an off taste due to chemical additives (BHT), excessive fatback added in (this gives it a bacon taste), poor husbandry practices, or all of the above. Moreover, animals store toxins (and whatever growth hormones and antibiotics they’re fed) in their fat, so stick with the quality organic lard, and you’ll be pleased with your pies.
Shortening Shortening crusts are a bit lackluster in flavor, but yield a very flaky texture. Shortening keeps for long periods of time and is the cheapest option for pie crusts. It’s easy to work with because it’s less sensitive to warm temperatures; it’s solid at room temperature and will not melt into the flour during the mixing process. It’s our last choice for flavor, but it can be improved by mixing both shortening and butter in dough to capitalize on the positive characteristics of both fats—stability and flavor. Most shortening comes as hydrogenated fat (cottonseed or soybean oil with hydrogen added) and contains trans-fatty acids. A fully baked all-shortening crust served at room temperature can leave a waxy feeling in the mouth.
Flavorful rendered meat fats Goose, duck, bacon, etc., have a strong flavor and can be used in pie dough sparingly by substituting 1 tablespoon of cold, solid fat for 1 tablespoon of fat called for in your favorite Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 7 crust recipe. For instructions on rendering meat fats, follow the lard rendering instructions (see page 45). Stronger meat fat flavors are best used in crusts for savory pies or for autumn and winter fruit pies.There are some curious old pioneer cookbooks that even call for using bear cub fat or wild game fats for pie crust—certainly not for the sake of being exotic, but rather, to use what was available locally. Crusts made with liquid oil are unpleasant in texture—mealy and heavy—and are generally not recommended. Our only exception to this is the Hot Water Pastry Crust used for Pork Pie Hats (page 45), because the dough is soft and pliable and holds its form well when baked. Its baked flavor and texture are reminiscent of fried empanadas—delicious and solid next to the spicy pulled pork; it is a great pastry for little meat pies. Preparing Pastry Ingredients Wash your hands in cold water. No matter how hands-on or -off you are in the kitchen, you’ll need to have your bare hands on the dough to get a feel for it during the process. Maintaining cool hands, ingredients, and dough throughout the pastry-making process helps to prevent the fat in the dough from melting. If ingredients or tools feel warm, chill them in the refrigerator or freezer; if your hands warm up too much, cool them down under cold water and dry them well before returning to the dough. Measure out the water for the crust (with a touch more extra water in the measure in case your dough needs it) and then add ice cubes. Chill it in the freezer. Dip a dry measuring cup into the flour and level it off. Sifting is not appropriate for pie dough; sifting flour fluffs it up and may leave you shy of the amount needed. By the same token, don’t pack flour down or you’ll have too much. In a mixing bowl, mix flour and salt. To use butter, measure out the amount you need, and then dip the cold, solid stick in the measured flour to coat it. Sprinkle a little of the flour for the recipe on the butter wrapper and place the flour-coated butter on top 8 bubby’s homemade pie s of it. Using a dough scraper or a long butcher knife, cut the butter lengthwise in half, and then in quarters, coating each cut side with flour as you go. Then dice the butter into ¼-inch cubes (1-inch pieces for food processor method) and add them and any remaining flour on the wrapper back into the bowl of flour.
Mixing the Fat into the FlourHand Method
Using a pastry cutter, press the blades through the mixture, bearing down repeatedly like you would to mash potatoes. Repeat this gesture until the largest pieces of fat are the size of shelling peas and the smallest are the size of lentils (none smaller). Do not get overenthusiastic here: this size range makes for excellent flakiness. Rechill if the fat is no longer cool to the touch. Food Processor Method We use a food processor to cut the fat into the flour when we are making a batch of dough for three or more pie crusts. It’s worthwhile and fast, but be careful not to overmix the fat.Always use the pulse button for this method, never use the ON (continuous) setting. First pulse the flour and salt in the food processor. Chop the fat into 1-inch pieces with a knife and add it.You need to cut the fat into larger pieces when using a food processor because the machine cuts it down very quickly—much more quickly than a hand pastry cutter. Pulse a few times. To get the fat to cut in evenly, stop and give the entire food processor and Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 9 its contents a jostle by tilting it from side to side every couple of pulses. Pulse the mixture until the largest fat pieces are the size of shelling peas. Do not overmix.Watch closely—it only takes about 10 quick pulses to get there. If you have a few bigger chunks of butter in a mixture that is otherwise perfect, pour the mixture into a large bowl and cut the bigger chunks down to size by hand so that the whole mixture remains consistent for flakiness. Transfer the fat and flour mixture to a bowl and chill it. Do not use the food processor to add the water to a pastry crust. Always mix in the water by hand.
Mixing in the Water
Keep in mind that flour absorbs humidity from the air. If you’re mixing pie dough in a hot, dry, and arid climate, you’ll need a little more water than you will if you’re making pie dough in a cool, moist, and humid climate.The ideal texture, a pastry that holds itself in a ball, supple and slightly tacky to the touch, is what you’re ultimately looking for, rather than adding an exact amount of water; the recipes call for an approximate amount of water,but you need to use your hands to feel when it is right. Begin this phase with a fully chilled flour and fat mixture. Be judicious, even stingy, with the icecold water. Do not add all the water at once; it must be dispersed into the mixture incrementally. Add water a couple of tablespoons (or later, drops) at a time, quickly tossing the mixture with your hands after each addition.Emphasize upward motion and lightness in your tossing and try to distribute the water evenly throughout the mixture. Work the dough as little as possible. When there are no floury bits anymore—just little comet-like cobbles that don’t quite cohere—slow down and sprinkle or flick water in at this point (don’t pour or spoon it in now).The balance can shift quickly from 10 bubby’s homemade pie s crumbly to wet. Again, one drop can make the difference and bring it all together. To test the dough for consistency, lightly pat together some dough the size of a tennis ball. If the ball crumbles apart or has lots of dry-looking cracks in it, the dough is still too dry; let it break apart.Add a drop or two of water to the outside of the ball and work it just a little. If it holds and feels firm and supple, mop up any remaining crumbs with the ball—if they pick up easily, the dough is probably wet enough. If they fall back into the bowl, you might need a touch more water to pull the dough together. The pastry should be just a little bit tacky when you touch it. Wet dough may seem easier to work, but because the extra water overdevelops the gluten, it makes the crust tough. If your pie dough is stretchy (glutinous) and quickly retracts when you roll it out, chances are you have added more water than you need and your pastry is overworked. If your dough is quite sticky, soft, and wet, it is better to pitch it and start over. At this point, you can’t just add flour to fix it. Dough can feel like it’s holding together because the butter is melting. If at any point the dough ceases to feel cool to the touch or the butter pieces feel melty, soft, and warm, put the whole mixture in the freezer until it’s cooled down again—about 10 minutes. It’s impossible to gauge the water ratio accurately if the fat is melting into the flour. If you’re making a single crust, shape the dough into one round ball with your hands. If you’re making a double crust, divide the dough into slightly
uneven halves and shape each half into a ball—the larger of which will be for the bottom crust, the smaller ball for the top.Cover each ball tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least half an hour to relax the gluten and rechill the fat. In practical terms, this cold rest makes the dough easier to roll out.The dough will feel cold and firm when you take it out again. Rolling and Shaping Only take one ball of dough from the refrigerator at a time, beginning with the larger of two balls if you’re making a double crust. Unwrap it and place it on a clean, smooth, lightly floured surface like a wooden chopping block or a countertop. Flour sprinkled on the surface of the dough and the work surface keeps the dough from sticking to the rolling pin; it allows the dough to move and expand freely without resistance. Keep a little mound of flour off to the side to pull from as needed.You don’t have to be shy when applying flour, but just brush the excess off the dough with your hand before rolling it out.Too much extra flour can dry out the dough. Gently press the ball down with the palm of your hand to flatten it into a round, flat disk, about two inches high. Sprinkle the flattened dough with flour. The more circular the shape you start with, the easier it is to keep it that way, so pat the edges of the puck into a circle again if any cracks formed there. (If the cracks are many and resistant to mending, brush off any flour and add a drop or two of water at a large crack and give the dough a very brief knead to incorporate it.)
Start rolling in the center and keep rolling the dough from the center outward—using more pressure in the center and less as you near the edge. Take care not to roll beyond the outside edge or it will get too thin. If the edges start to crack and separate, gently squeeze them back together. Scatter flour across the rolling surface and flip the puck over. Strive to make the thickness of the dough as even as possible—about ⅛ inch thick by the end. Think of the dough like a clock— balancing a 12 o’clock stroke with a 6 o’clock stroke, a 2 o’clock stroke with an 8 o’clock stroke and so on, lifting and turning the dough incrementally so that all directions are addressed. Use each stroke to try to maintain the circle’s integrity as it grows larger. If you get subcontinents, pinch them back together before they have a chance to spread out too much. You should be able to see the fat take on a marbled look in the dough as it spreads out under the pressure.Try not to handle it too much with your hands. Be quick to note if the dough is sticking. Scatter flour across the dough and the rolling surface and flip the dough over.To flip it, you can loosely roll the dough around the rolling pin to support it and turn it over. If dough clings to the board, use the pastry scraper to help lift it off. If you are having trouble with dough sticking to the pin or the counter, you either need more flour on and under the surface of the dough or you need to chill the dough before moving on. If you start feeling soft butter, gently scrape the dough up with the pastry scraper, put the dough on a baking sheet, and chill it in the freezer for one Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 13 minute. (This won’t happen as you learn to work more quickly. Practice makes for improvement.) If the dough is cold to the touch, you probably just need more flour to prevent sticking. For the bottom crust, hold your pie tin over the dough circle to test the round for size.The edge of the crust should extend beyond the lip of the tin about two inches in all directions. Brush off the excess flour with your hand or a dry pastry brush. For pies, you don’t have to grease or flour the pan. The fat in the dough is sufficient for an easy release. If you are using the dough right away, loosely fold the circle in half, then in quarters. Center the tip of the wedge in the pie plate and unfold the pie dough very gently. Lift the edges inward a bit to help the dough settle into the edges of the pan on its own accord without forcing it. Don’t press or stretch the dough, or it’ll pull back in baking. Let it take the shape itself. Refrigerate the crustlined pan. If you’re making a double crust, scrape the counter 14 bubby’s homemade pie s clean with a dough scraper. Reflour the counter, take out the next ball of dough, and repeat the process.
Trimming and Crimping a Single Crust
A single crust can be used alone, with filling exposed, or in conjunction with a crumb, a crisp, or a meringue topping. A single crust is often parbaked or blind-baked before the filling is added. It is good for custard pies, cream pies, or fruit pies with very juicy fruits that can afford to lose some extra moisture during baking. After lining the pie pan and allowing the dough to settle into it completely, trim the excess dough—about ¾ inch beyond the edge of the pan—with the pastry cutter or the tip of a sharp knife. If you don’t have quite enough crust on one section of the edge, you can use trimmed bits of excess dough to patch into scant ones by pinching the overlapping dough edges together. Roll the trimmed dough edge and rest it on the lip of the tin.Work your way around the edge continuously, striving for a rolled edge pretty even in thickness—about ½ inch. Avoid creating super thick edges; they’re likely to turn out undercooked and gummy inside. The benefit of crimping an edge—in addition to tying up loose ends—is that it helps strengthen and stabilize the crust’s edge on the lip of the pan. The easiest way to crimp the edge of a single-crust pie is by pressing the tines of a fork evenly around the edge.You might need to dip the tines in flour occasionally to keep the dough from sticking to them. Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 15 To make a fancier scalloped edge instead, use your outside hand as an armature and your inside hand as the primary mover, to push the rolled edge into a little V-shaped crimp. Repeat and turn until you’ve made it all of the way around. Chill the fully formed crust for at least 20 minutes before filling or baking it.
Blind- or Par-Baking a Single Crust
There are two reasons to bake a single crust alone without its filling:The first (blind-baking) is if the filling is not baked but the crust is, as with a pudding pie or a glazed fresh fruit pie. Sometimes, a crust is par-baked (partially baked) and then a custard filling is added to it and the two are baked in the oven together.What’s the reason to do this somewhat cumbersome par-baking if it’s going to be baked again? Have you ever eaten a gummy-tasting, doughy bottom crust from a pumpkin pie? A custard filling is wet and bakes for only a short time at a low temperature, preventing the crust from getting very far along in its baking process. In this case, the solution is to bake the crust alone until it is blond, blistered, and the pastry is “set” in the oven, then to finish baking the crust with the filling in it. (This is the case with pumpkin pie.) You can prepare a parbaked crust a few hours in advance to get a head start, before going on to make the filling. To blind- or par-bake a fully formed, crimped, uncooked crust, refrigerate it for at least 20 minutes first. Before baking, dock the bottom of the entire crust with a fork. Line the inside of the crust with parchment or foil and fill it with dried beans or commercial pie weights (dried kidney beans work well and can be used over and over), 16 bubby’s homemade pie s spreading them evenly all the way up to the top edge. (See Equipment and Source Reference, page 321.) Par Baking﹒ Bake the crust at 450ºF for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edge looks blonde and lightly blistered. The bottom of the crust will look partially cooked and there may still be some translucency to the dough. Carefully lift out the liner and weights. Cool the crust completely on a rack or trivet. It is now ready to be filled and further baked. Blind Baking﹒ To fully blind-bake a crust, turn the oven down to 375°F and bake it for 10 minutes more after removing the liner and weights, or until the crust edges and bottom are golden brown. Check on it from time to time during the first few minutes after returning it to the oven. If the crust starts to balloon up, you can lightly pat it down with your hand or a clean dish towel (yes it’s hot,but just move quickly) and then prick the ballooning area with a fork before returning it to the oven. Cool the crust completely before filling it.
Trimming and Crimping a Double Crust
A double-crust pie has a top crust that works like a lid on a pot—it traps most of the steam from the fruit filling as it cooks.The perk is that the top crust responds beautifully to everything that happens above and below it and tastes marvelous. Fill the pie, dot the filling with butter if directed in the recipe, and lay the second rolled- Caring for Your Rolling Pin Only use water (don’t use soap) to clean a wood rolling pin—you don’t want to wash the oil off the wood. It should feel supple, like healthy skin. Instead, just wipe it down with a clean dry cloth until all the flour and bits of dough have been removed. There should be a sheen to it. Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 17 out pie crust over the top of the pie, aiming to center it correctly the first time, either using the quarter-fold method (see page 13) or by transferring the dough on the rolling pin. Because you’ll have two layers of crust at the edge, you can trim the edge of the bottom crust slightly shorter than you would a single-crust edge. Trim off the excess dough along the edge to ½ inch, roll the bottom and top edges together, and crimp as desired (see page 14). Refrigerate the filled pie for 10 minutes before making the pie vents. Pie Vents, Markings, and Pie Birds for Double-Crust Pies Vents are small holes or slits in the top crust of a double-crust pie to allow the excess steam to escape.At Bubby’s,we think of pie vents as language or signage—each kind of pie has its own characteristic design.With so many different pies at the restaurant,we find it necessary to differentiate between whole uncut pies, especially ones that look similar, so we use distinctive vent patterns to indicate different types of pies. To make vents, cut into the top crust of an unbaked pie with the tip of a sharp knife once the crust is already crimped and refrigerated. Or, before you add the top crust to the pie, use small cutting molds like miniature cookie cutters or Do I have to vent a double-crust pie? Yes, because otherwise it can balloon up or burst open when the steam starts to form inside the pie.You can also use a pie bird—a decorative ceramic or metal vent that fits into the top crust—to sing the steam out. AS K B U B B Y 18 bubby’s homemade pie s the large end of pastry tube tips to make a pattern. If the pie requires a wellsealed top (like an apple pie), keep the open areas to a minimum—use slits instead—or your fruit will dry out.You can make a lattice top crust with juicy fruit pies such as cherry or blueberry. If the design you have in mind involves a lot of cutaways, cut the wellchilled crust on a layer of parchment, center it over the filled pie, and carefully slide the crust onto the filling. To place a pie bird in your pie (see page 329) cut an X in the center of the top crust and nestle the base in securely. Lattice Crusts Lattice pies are often used to showcase a beautifully colored, juicy fruit.Mix up a batch of double-crust pastry pie dough and line the pie plate with the bottom layer of dough. Refrigerate. Roll out the second round as you would for a double crust. Chill it for 10 minutes. Using a very sharp knife, a pizza cutter, or a wavy ravioli cutter, cut parallel strips at ¾-inch intervals (you can use a ruler or just wing it). Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 19 To build the lattice, lay the longest strips across the middle of the filled pie to form an X. Lay the next two longest strips parallel to the strip that lies under the X, on either side of it. Switch directions and do the same for the other strip, weaving them over and under the larger strips in a basket-weave pattern. Repeat until the surface of the pie has been fully draped with it. Or, you can place one layer of strips on top of the filling and then place the other layer across them without weaving.You may need to thin out some of the lattice strips where they overhang and overlap at the crust edge before you roll it up, lest your crimped edge get too bulky.
Optional Finishing Touches for a Double-Crust Pie
A double-crust pie needs nothing more than a vent or two, but sometimes it’s nice to add a little something for flavor, function, or beauty. Choose only one option and add it just before the pie goes in the hot oven. Sugar﹒ Right before baking, you can sprinkle the top crust with a little sugar to give the fully baked crust a nice, sugary, slightly caramelized crackle. If you’re working with a very tall pie like a Mile-High Apple Pie, flick a little bit of water on the crust (to help the sugar stick to it) and then sprinkle it with sugar. Bake immediately. Cream and Sugar﹒ Using a pastry brush, brush heavy cream very lightly over the top crust and then sprinkle it with sugar.This gives a nice subtle sheen to the golden-brown crust and the sugar makes it sweeter.Typically, we prefer to use this one exclusively for lattice crusts or the biscuit crust on cobblers because it can seal a flaky crust too thoroughly. Honey﹒ Use a squeeze bottle or honey spoon to drizzle honey lightly over the top crust.The honey design will take on the-quality of a drawing as it bakes; it gets a shade darker than the crust.We use it for sweet or savory apple or quince pies.This is especially good at the crust’s edge, where the honey gathers and bakes into the pastry. Egg Wash﹒ Whisk an egg with a tablespoon or two of cold water and brush a light coat over the crust with a pastry brush. It produces a high-gloss sheen on the finished crust. This is recommended for savory pies or pastries as a means to hold sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or herbs in place. Baking Pies in Quantity If you are making more than six pies at a time, you’ll want to change your methods. To make the dough, use a food processor to cut the butter into the flour but, as always, add the water by hand.
If My crust is falling down. It looks like it’s melting off the edge. Why? When a crust doesn’t set up correctly or hold its structure, there are a number of questions to ask.Was the dough cold enough when it went into the oven? Was the oven temperature high enough to set the crust quickly? Did you add more fat than the recipe called for? Was the dough too wet? If there’s a lot of movement in the dough, too much water is often the culprit. Practice is the best teacher. A S K B U B B Y Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 21 you are making a lot of dough, you should divide it into smaller batches to add the water. Form the dough into 6-ounce balls for 9-inch crusts (tennis ball size), wrap tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least half an hour. You can mix the pie dough a day or two in advance to save time. It is good for the dough to chill, rest, and relax.Pastry pie dough will hold in the refrigerator, in balls wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Refrigerated dough that looks slightly gray is too old and should be thrown away. Freezing dough can be a practical measure if you have two events a week apart, but in general, it’s preferable to make up dough fresh because the freezer only diminishes the quality. If you freeze dough, take care to pack it well in extra layers of plastic wrap and put it inside a well-sealed plastic bag to prevent it from taking on added moisture or getting freezer burn.Thaw frozen dough in the refrigerator for twenty-four hours before you need it. Thawed dough can feel wet. Use a little more flour when rolling it out to help balance the moisture. Prerolled, Prechilled Crusts If you have a few double-crust pies to assemble, roll out and chill all your dough in advance—up to an hour or two ahead of time—so that your filling doesn’t sit for too long once it’s mixed together. If fruit for the pie filling is allowed to sit in a bowl with the sugar, the sugar will macerate the fruit and make the filling soupy. If you roll out rounds in advance, you can refrigerate them stacked like pancakes on a wide baking sheet with parchment, waxed paper, or plastic wrap between each layer.Wrap the stack and baking sheet completely with plastic wrap so the crusts won’t dry out, and refrigerate them. Because crusts are more prone to drying out once rolled, only prepare them this way shortly before you plan to use them.
Cinnamon and Sugar Scrap Buddies After rolling out the dough, you have some spare edges. Don’t throw them away! Use this recipe to make an easy, excellent snack.This is a great project for kids and a good way to ensure that your children will treat you to pies in your old age. These can be baked at any oven temperature alongside your pie. Kids love ’em. 3 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon Pastry pie dough trimmings Mix up the cinnamon and sugar and then choose one of the following methods: Teaching Aspiring Young Pie Bakers: Take your scraps of dough and let the youngsters mush them together into a ball or two. Let them roll them out again until the pieces are reasonably flat. (You can buy small rolling pins for kids.) Place their creations on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and let the kids sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 375ºF for 5 to 10 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. Cool and serve. (The dough will get overworked but the treats will still taste very good.The point is to give kids a chance to play and be comfortable working with dough.) Snails for the Aesthetically Minded Child: Lay the scraps flat and brush them with a touch of melted butter. Let the kids sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar and help them roll the thin scraps up like a jellyroll and cut them into tiny cinnamon buns. Place the buns spiral side up on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 375ºF for 5 to 10 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. Cool and serve. Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 23
Basic Butter and Shortening Pastry Pie Dough
An all-butter crust takes finesse to mix and handle because butter gets soft quickly at room temperature. Keeping a butter crust cold takes more attention, but pays off in flavor and flakiness. Its versatile flavor complements and accentuates other flavors in much the same way that a pat of butter and a pinch of salt do in the filling. It’s often our first choice at home because it goes very well with any single- or double-crust fruit pie, savory pie, or cream pie. Measure out the water for the crust (with a bit of extra water in the measure in case you need a touch more) and then add ice cubes. Chill it in the freezer. Measure out the flour (unsifted) by leveling off dry measuring cups, and add the flour to large bowl.Add the salt to the flour and give it a quick stir to combine evenly. Use cold butter, measure out the amount you need, and then coat the cold, solid stick with the flour in the bowl. Using a dough scraper or a long butcher knife, cut the butter lengthwise in half, and then lengthwise in quarters, coating each newly cut side with flour as you go. Dice the butter into ¼- 8- to 10-inch single crust 4 to 5 tablespoons ice cold water 1½ cups all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon salt 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter 8- to 10-inch double crust or 12-inch single crust 5 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water 2 cups all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt 11½ tablespoons cold unsalted butter 12-inch double crust ½ cup ice cold water 3 cups all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter inch cubes (or 1-inch sticks if using a food processor).Break up any pieces that stick together and toss them all to coat them with flour. (If it is a warm day, chill this mixture briefly in the freezer before continuing.) hand method Using a pastry cutter, press the blades through the mixture, bearing down repeatedly like you would to mash potatoes. Repeat this gesture until the largest pieces of fat are the size of shelling peas and the smallest are the size of lentils (none smaller). Do not get overenthusiastic here: this size range makes for excellent flakiness. Rechill if necessary. food processor method Add the flour, salt, and butter mixture to the food processor and pulse it a few times. Do not use the continuous ON setting for pastry.To get the fat to cut in evenly you must stop and angle the entire food processor to give its contents a jostle by shaking and tilting it every couple of pulses. Pulse the mixture until the larger fat pieces are the size of shelling peas and the smallest fat pieces are the size of lentils. Do not overmix.Watch closely—it typically takes less than 10 quick pulses to get there. If you have a few bigger chunks of butter in a mixture that is otherwise perfect, dump the mixture into a large bowl and cut the bigger chunks down to size by hand with a pastry cutter so that the whole mixture remains consistent for flakiness.Transfer the fat and flour mixture to a bowl and chill it.
Do not use the food processor to add the water to a pastry crust. Always mix in the water by hand. When adding the water, begin with a fully chilled flour and fat mixture and ice cold water. Be judicious, even stingy, with the water. Do not add all the water at once; it must be dispersed into the mixture incrementally. Add 24 bubby’s homemade pie s Bubby’s All-Butter Pastry Pie Dough (continued) water two or three tablespoons at first, quickly tossing the mixture with your hands after each addition with light upward motion to distribute the water evenly throughout it.Work the dough as little as possible. Continue adding little bits of water at a time. When there are no floury bits anymore—just little cometlike cobbles that don’t quite cohere—slow down and sprinkle or flick water in at this point. One drop can make the difference and bring it all together.The balance can shift quickly from crumbly to wet. To test the dough for consistency, lightly pat together some dough the size of a tennis ball. If the ball crumbles apart or has lots of drylooking cracks in it, the dough is still too dry; let it break apart. Add a drop or two of water to the outside of the ball and work it just a little. If it holds and feels firm and supple, mop up any remaining crumbs with the ball—if they pick up easily, the dough is probably wet enough. If they fall back into the bowl, you might need a touch more water. The pastry should be just a little bit tacky when you touch it. Wet dough may seem easier to work, but because the extra water overdevelops the gluten it makes a really tough crust. If your pie dough is stretchy (glutinous) and quickly retracts when you roll it out, chances are you have added more water than you need and your pastry is overworked. If your dough is quite sticky, soft, and wet, it is better to pitch it and start over. Crust Basics: An Illustrated Primer 25 26 bubby’s homemade pie s Dough can feel like it’s holding together because the butter is melting. If at any point the dough ceases to feel cool to the touch or the butter pieces feel melty, soft, and warm, put the whole mixture in the freezer until it’s cooled down again—about 10 minutes. It’s impossible to gauge the water ratio accurately if the fat is melting into the flour. If you’re making a single crust, shape the dough into one round ball with your hands. If you’re making a double crust, divide the dough into slightly uneven halves and shape each half into a ball—the larger of which will be for the bottom crust, the smaller ball for the top. Cover each ball tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least half an hour to relax and slow the gluten development and rechill the fat. In practical terms, this cold rest makes the dough easier to roll out. For instructions on rolling out dough, see “Rolling and Shaping” on page 11. Bubby’s All-Butter Pastry Pie Dough (continued) Why is my fully baked pie crust shrinking? If your pie crust shrinks while it is baking, chances are the gluten in the dough was overworked.Was the dough wet and stretchy? Ease off on the water the next time you mix your dough. Did you work the dough for a long time, either during the mixing process or while rolling it out? You may need to pause and rechill the dough more frequently to allow the gluten to relax. Another possibility is that your pie crust may have needed more of a chill before it went into the oven.
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