Tengrain’s Little Cooking School: Pie dough
As we are at the start of the holiday cooking season, it is time to open up Tengrain’s Little Cooking School, which is a sort of on-again, off-again recurring feature. It all started when a Scissorhead had to take care of his ill wife and three kids, and did not know anything about how to cook, and was panicked.
And speaking of panic, I know of few things in the kitchen that panic people more than making the holiday pies, and usually the panic all comes down to one word: dough. There are only three ingredients in pie dough, so how hard can this be? Well, plenty. Even gourmand Scissorhead LiberalDemDave tells me that he always buys the pre-made pie crust in the grocery store.
Besides being outrageously expensive, the quality of the ingredients in the pre-made kind are shameful, and there is no point in spending a fortune when in way under 10 minutes you can have a high-quality dough pulled together for a fraction of the cost.
Ingredients:
Here is the recipe from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), called simply “3-2-1 Pie Dough” 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part water. What is important to note here is that this is a ratio — so it scales up or down depending upon the quantity you want to make, and that it is based on weight, not volume. All baking should be measured in weight.
So for a typical pie: 12 ounces flour, 8 ounces of butter or vegetable shortening (cut into small bits), 2 – 4 ounces of water (whole butter has a certain amount of water already in it, so you can factor that into your liquid — or not; shortening does not have water in it); a pinch of salt
Here’s the deal about weighing your ingredients. A cup of flour can weigh anywhere between 4 and 6 ounces. So if you are making something that calls for 4 cups of flour, you could end up with either a pound of flour or a pound and one-half. That’s an accuracy issue of 50%. Weigh your ingredients and all will be well.
As for technique, you can mix this by hand, by food processor, or by standing mixer. If you mix it by hand, be aware that you need to work fast because the heat of your hands might melt the fat. I recommend you get the fat as cold as you can before you start.
Generally here is what I do:
- Before you begin, put all the ingredients into the freezer for at least 15 minutes. Include any bowls, and utensils.
- Combine the flour and the fat – rub it together, use a dough blender, your hands, a machine. Do it until you create little pea-sized chunks of fat and flour and stop. Over mixing it will create gluten which is great if you are making bread, but sad if you are making dough. The rule of thumb is to under-mix at this step.
- Add the water, which should be ice cold, and maybe a pinch of salt. But when you do this, do not squeeze the dough or knead it. Just stir it in. If you are using a machine, I would take it out at this point and add the water by hand. You should have spent less than 10 minutes pulling the dough together (if you are working by hand). If you are using a machine, you probably spent less than three minutes.
- When the dough makes a shaggy mess, stop. Dump it out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and use the wrap to scoop it up into a more-or-less disc shape, and put the whole thing into the fridge where it will rest for at least 15 minutes. You do this so that the flour gets fully hydrated from the liquid, and so that the fat firms up again. Do not skip this step.
As for rolling it out and fitting it in a pie pan… I roll out the dough after it has rested, but mostly I don’t bother with the pie pans. I usually make galettes, which are very rustic and quite chic currently. I roll out the dough on a sheet of parchment, I dump the fruit onto the middle of it, and then I fold over the rest of the dough so it makes a lip that contains the pie and its juices, but is more or less open on top. I usually move it onto an upside-down sheet pan (the bottom side so that there is no lip blocking the heat), slide the thing into the oven, and voilà it is pretty much done.
Fancy Stuff
OK, you knew this was coming…
- You can add a bit of sugar to the dough. The French would call this a pate sucre, and typically use this for a dessert. You can add as much or as little as you like — I stop at about 2 Tablespoons per pie. This will help your pie dough have a deeper color when baked as well as a sweeter flavor.
- If you have particularly cold hands you can try frissage, which is basically smearing the fat and the flour together on your surface using the heel of your hand. This make for nice, long streaks of fat and a particularly flaky crust. If your hands are especially warm, this technique may not work well for you because it can melt the fat. But it is always worth a try.
- Science is our friend: I was really skeptical about this technique, but it is da bomb: substitute about half of the ice water for iced vodka. I read about this in Cook’s Illustrated and tested it. (Remember what I said about this recipe being a ratio? You can scale it down to tiny sizes to see if adding sugar, or use vegetable shortening vs. butter or a combination, and you can see about the water and vodka, too — you can test it with like a half-ounce of liquid, an ounce of fat, and 2 ounces of flour). Cook’s Illustrated says “80 proof vodka consists of 60% water and 40% ethanol. While gluten forms readily in water, it does not form in ethanol. And of course the alcohol vaporizes in the oven.
That said, if you are in recovery, or any of your guests are, why risk it — and besides, just having the vodka around might be an unfair temptation.
I make a simple pie dough that is uber easy and goooood. Actually I have two. One’s from the sadly no-longer-published “Gourmet” (THE ‘Playboy’ of food pRon) for their Apple Galette and the other is from Green & Black’s cookbook for their Black Bottom Pumpkin Pie. I save my culinary freak-out for dealing w/raw chicken (I don’t touch it!), pie dough…well, it’s easy as pie!
I cannot believe that Conde Naste killed Gourmet and kept Bon Appetit. They lost Riechle, what were they thinking Elspeth, what were they thinking?
Regards,
Tengrain
I swear by the Cuisinart when it comes to pie crust. It makes it so fast and unfailingly perfect.
My recipe (I just made a pumpkin pie for my son to take to some dinner he’s going to tonight, so it is fresh in my head. I got this from the Maida Heatter Pie cookbook, and then added a couple of twists. This is for a single, 10 inch pie crust.
1 1/4 cups flour (I use King Arthur, unbleached, exclusively)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 T unsalted butter (cold)
3 3/4 T butter flavor Crisco
3 3/4 T ice cold water (I put a couple of ice cubes in a cup, add cold water and then add about 1 T of vinegar, mix it up and then pull the required Tablespoons out of the cup)
Put the flour and salt in the bowl of the food processor, then add the butter and crisco, pulse it a few times till it forms the small pellets TG talks about.
Add the water and pulse again a few times and the dough will magically come together. Take it out, roll it into a ball and place in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for about 20 to 30 minutes. It will be ready to roll out then. You can put it in freezer for a shorter time if you need to speed things up.
I have another great recipe that is more like a pate brisee and I use it to make tarts. The food processor is the greatest invention in the world for pie crusts.
Cancelling Gourmet is one of those business decisions I will NEVER understand.
Abo Gato – the trick with the vinegar is similar — chemically — to the vodka. The difference is that vinegar leaves behind a taste. So… you can use apple cider vinegar to a point, or even sherry or raspberry vinegar (to a point), or you can try the vodka; it might be interesting to try Calvados, especially for an apple pie. The hooch makes an amazing difference. I really doubted it, but I have compared and contrasted it several times now, and it works every time. It is nearly impossible to make a tough crust with it. Give it a shot and let us know — but you don’t have to try it out for T-day, it sounds like you already are a pro. — rgds, TG
I usually use butter, but sometimes I use coconut oil, and it works quite well, giving a nice crispyness to the flake. And I bake in cast iron skillets, works like a charm.
Ten, you are preachin’ to the choir…”Bon Appetit”’s photos somehow manage to make the food look, well, less than enticing. I could pore over “Gourmet” like Sarah Palin over her reflection. I must admit, I got “Gourmet” for the pictures but also discovered the articles to be great, too. And the recipes I have tried have been easy (not simple but followable w/good results) to see to fruition. I believe it will be in an online format…?
And o/t – may I add “Who DAT?!???!”!?? Saints, 10-0!
It’s been a while since I’ve done any baking, but I never seemed to have any problems with pie crust. I sometimes wonder if one bad experience turns people off from even trying. Which would be sad… most of us would only have sex once in our lives.
I can’t find fault with any of your ideas or the recipes here! I am so impressed. It’s so rare to see anyone write about how to make a good pie crust! It’s a lost art. A few things you didn’t mention was to make sure you have really fresh flour. So many times I use a little flour here and there and it sits in the Tupperware container for months. I have to remember to go out and buy a new pound of it. It’s cheap. I also never use whole wheat flour unless I’m making a quiche. I use unbleached white, as fresh as possible, a little baking soda, a little salt, and 1/3 – 2/3 ratio of butter to shortening. Crisco works great. I like a little butter, not all butter.
Also, the bit about really cold water is a must. I put ice cubes in a cup and put water in that until it’s very cold before adding it to the dough. I use a pastry cutter for step one (to pea size) and then just a few whisks of an ordinary fork. I never use my hands in the mixing process.
The cold vodka idea is inspired! I’ll have to try that sometime!
Incidentally, if you are going to do anything about mashed potatoes, I have some tips for the best mashed potatoes ever. I prefer mine whipped, not lumpy, which is where the Kitchen Aid mixer earns its keep.
The secrets to really good mashed potatoes: after the potatoes have boiled, strain the water into another pan (keep the water for gravy making later) and then return the potatoes to the original pan and put them back on the stove and shake them slightly to dry them. It makes such a difference.
Use HOT MILK not cold milk when whipping. And real butter, of course. Also. heh.
You can reconstitute some dehydrated onions (the little dried ones) with some of the potato water. I like them better in mashed potatoes than fresh onion and the kids will eat the potatoes that way.
Retzilian -
You must be either psychic or French: I was going to talk about drying the potatoes after boiling them in a mashed potatoes post… but since you mention it now, it is essential to do. And here’s why:
When you return the boiled potatoes to the empty pan, and put them back over heat, in essence what you are doing is getting them to empty some of the cells of excess water (you will see steam coming out of the pan, and a film will start to develop on the bottom/sides of the pan as you start to mash them in the pan), and what that means is that they can absorb more (cream/milk/butter/cream cheese/….) — and then you can transfer them to a standing mixer, or continue mashing them by hand. Do not try to make mashed potatoes in a Cuisinart, ever. You will make paste.
This technique allows you to make mashed potatoes a day ahead, put them in a baking dish and in the ‘fridge to reheat on T-day. The fat content stabilizes the starch so that it doesn’t end up tasting musty when you reheat. They actually might puff a little bit, in fact, and you can get a nice gratinée brown crust on top — just add a little melted butter on top.
Rgds,
TG
Timely. Pie dough is one of those things I don’t do, but should. Must say I did a double take when I saw the term frissage. Read it at first as frottage.
I found a recipe years ago that I have been using ever since. In lieu of some of the ice water, use 1 large egg and 1 tbsp of cider vinegar – awesome! And, the longer you work the dough, the tougher it becomes so work quickly.
TG, I’ll try the vodka for Thanksgiving, but I usually dilute the vinegar enough in the water and ice that any taste left behind by the vinegar was negligible. My son came back with an empty pie plate, so it looks as if the pie was a hit. He’s still asleep, so I’ll have to find out later what they thought.
Here’s my Gourmet magazine story: 23 years ago or so I met my husband. We liked each other, a lot. He had a work trip to Sacramento planned. He asked me if I’d ever been to San Francisco. No, neither of us had, so I went on the trip with him. The day before we were leaving, my new Gourmet arrived in the mail. The issue was all about San Francisco and area restaurants. I read it on the plane and suggested some places to go. We had a wonderful trip, and ate at a couple of the places recommended. He later told his friends that he knew I was the girl for him if I could go to a place I’d never been to before and know all about where to go and what to eat. (pre Internet days, ya know) Cracks me up to remember that trip now.
TG, I am both a little bit psychic and a little bit French. My maternal great-grandmother was French (Jaquet/Balizet) and my paternal great-grandparents were from Alcaise-Lorraine, which as you know was French/German/French/German, so it’s a little of both. If you ever go to Strasbourg (or have been there), it’s kind of the perfect combination of French and German.
I am a little bit psychic because I was born on a Friday the 13, and just had a birthday on a Friday the 13th, which is a shameless thing to tell you, but there you go.
P.S., I’ve been a big fan of this site for a couple of years, but only recently had the urge to post.