Some pie dough tips from a (formerly) terrified pie-baker

[housewolf]

http://doriegreenspan.com/2011/08/i-have-a-long-bumpy.html#more

Rolling Out Pie Dough: Terrified No More
August 10, 2011

I have a long, bumpy relationship with crusts. I love them, for sure. I love making the dough. No problem there. The difficulty, for years and years, was rolling out the dough I’d had such fun making. Rolling terrified me!

I had all the right equipment: rolling pins of every length, weight and material, and a flat countertop that was big enough to roll out pizza for a small army. I probably even had the right technique – or I should have, given how many classes I took and books I read. What I lacked was courage! I was a roll-out scaredy cat.

And then my friend, Donna, came over and said, “I think that if we roll a crust together, all will be revealed.” And so, there we were: Donna to my left, the crust in front of me, the rolling pin over my shoulder and glasses of wine awaiting what Donna was sure would be my success. And she was right – within minutes we were toasting each other and oohing and aahing over the crust that was sitting pretty in a pie plate.

The tips (and more)...
http://doriegreenspan.com/2011/08/i-have-a-long-bumpy.html#more

[Retrograde]

1. I learned how to make pie crusts last year

two tips:
-make sure the dough is well chilled before you roll it - chill it for at least an hour
-I use a silpat mat to roll the dough on (I don't want to buy nor do I have room for a marble slab). A decent rolling pin is also a must.

[Warpy]

7. Resting that crumbly mess in the fridge

also helps the flour absorb all the water and that makes it a hell of a lot less crumbly. 30 minutes is minimal. An hour or even two will be far better.

Pie crust is one of the things that came really easily to me. I have Reynaud's which means that my fingers stay cold, especially when the ambient temperature is under 75 and I'm not wearing knitted gauntlets. That made me a natural for all sorts of pastry, pie crust dough being among the easiest. A food processor made it even easier, blending the fat to perfection in just a couple of pulses of the button.

There's really no reason to fear pie crust, even if your fingers stay warm. Just rest that stuff as long as you can and don't worry if the edges are a little raggedy when you roll it out. You're going to trim them off anyway, you know.

[grasswire]

2. I roll between pieces of wax paper

Always have. FWIW.

[yellerpup]

3. Me, too.

I leaned it in HomeEc class in 1964. Thanks, Mrs. Kuhn! :hi:

[grasswire]

5. wasn't home ec great?

I remember it well. Made a blouse as the first sewing project. And that's not particularly an easy start, setting in sleeves and a collar, etc. Made waldorf salad as the first cooking project, and I remember doing it to this day.

[yellerpup]

6. I enjoyed home ec a lot.

I never had a problem with it until I was a senior and my friend and I wanted to take drafting instead. We were denied because "it would be too distracting for girls to be in the class." I liked it for the female comraderie--we giggled so much. It was also the first time I ever heard of puff pastry, and boy oh boy, did we gorge on the results. It used to be a required course, but I don't think it is now. :hi:

[trud]

8. No, home ec was not great

The guys learned useful stuff like electrical stuff, how to fix cars, do plumbing work, and the girls were stuck with sewing and cooking and cleaning, which anyone can pick up by themselves.

This was a real handicap when I majored in engineering in college and started way behind the guys who knew a lot from high school classes girls were prohibited from taking. You're already handicapped enough by teachers and fellow students thinking (and saying) you don't belong there without looking like a know-nothing in labs.

[pengillian101]

9. Me too!

I learned cooking skills at Home Ec and taught my own Mom, believe it or not, in cooking some things.

She was a Singer Sewing Machine seamstress/saleswoman, though, and and she taught me sewing skills, so I aced those Home Ec classes.

My sis and I were even on the local TV show ads for Singer Sewing Machines and we modeled our Mom's creations. That's a scary-fun memory, long forgotten. Thanks!

:hi:

[Lucinda]

4. Ditto

So did my mother and grandmother...