| I've been preparing for my first go at making pie crust from scratch by watching a few videos pinned to my Perfect Pie Crust Pinterest board. I was paying attention to their techniques and tips since many recipes seem to follow the same pattern. Flour, fat of some kind (butter, lard or Crisco), salt, and ice water. Today, I did a hands on pie crust lesson with my fabulous Mother-in-Law, whom I call Mom. I chose to do a blueberry pie because I wanted something that tends to get juicier than apple pie and I wanted to do a two-crust pie. (A two crust pie has, um, two crusts and in my past experience that has meant two chances to fail instead of just one!) So we gathered our supplies and the fine family tradition of baking at Mom's elbow began. We made two blueberry pies, the first round I did more watching and the second I was more hands-on. Besides having a fabulous time making pie crust with my daughters watching on, I learned some "Mom tricks" that the pros and videos didn't mention. The photos give a quick summary of our morning. (It starts back at the top.) "Pie crust is sturdier than you think, Kerry. Just confidently flip it on there!" |
"This recipe was passed down from my mom to me. She learned it from her mother, who learned it from her father's mother" -Mom | |
- Do not work the dough too much- this makes it tough. It is important to cut the fat into the dry ingredients just enough, but not too much. You want it to be evenly combined to about pea-sized crumbles.
- Add baking powder to the mix! Why? Because Mom said so, that's why!
- Leave the pie shield on the whole time while baking. It won't hurt anything, and will probably help the crust to brown evenly.
It happened to be Mom's birthday today. Wasn't it sweet of her to spend her birthday showing me how she makes pie crust? We have saved the big taste test for tomorrow when we will get together with the whole family to celebrate her birthday. Happy birthday to the best Mother-in-Law a lady could hope for! I feel very proud to now know the recipe and techniques for making a nice and flakey pie crust that has been handed down in my husband's family for generations. I'm crossing my fingers that my pie hold up!
I still have some questions I want to investigate. Especially, the difference in crust outcomes based upon ingredients and about decorative top crusts. I am predicting that being able to make a sturdy pie crust dough is the foundation for being able to create a beautiful lattice topped pie.
UPDATE:
The pie was awesome! The crust held up, but was flaky too. I cannot believe I actually did it. My family was sure Mom had done it, she attested that it was indeed my own work. She also said that paying careful attention to how much you cut-in the crisco to the dry ingredients is important to make the crust flaky. If you do it too much it will be tough and not enough it will fall apart. Good to know! Next up, road testing two more recipes from online. Then a blind taste test of the three crusts!