Recipes: Homemade Pie Crust

• Prep Time:25 Minutes
• Cook Time:60 Minutes
• Serves:8

 

Tagged:
bungalow chef, dessert recipes, food channel, holidays, home made pie, made from scratch, mike mech, pie crust, thanksgiving,

Are you someone who shies away from crafting a homemade pie due to the complexity of making a crust? It's not as complicated as it seems. This story and recipe is for you!

My Great Grandmother Schade (famed for her Pecan Crescents) was an amazing pie baker. She truly had the touch. She was the first generation of our family born in this country, and lived from the days of horse and buggy to seeing men land on the moon. In fact, she was one of the first woman drivers of that newfangled contraption called the “automobile” in the area. Her pies were legendary; as a child I was invited into her small kitchen to learn her magic. The butter and shortening had to be the right temperature and cubed to the correct size with a surgeon's skill. Her secrets included ever over-mixing, and adding a special ingredient: Heinz Vinegar--always Heinz.

She truly had a passion for everything American, “Old Glory, and Red White and Blue,” and she adored John Phillip Sousa’s (The March King's) music. Every time we would work on pie dough I can remember her collection of Sousa’s marches playing on her crank Victrola. She would say, “Making a pie crust takes precision” like a great march, and no one did a march better the Mr. Sousa. She would listen to the music, roll the dough, turn the dough, and go on with her loving marching orders.

Now google a fine march from John Phillip Sousa and off you go, marching into the kitchen!

--Michael

 

Foodie Byte

Ingredients

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cubed butter (1/4-inch diced) and well chilled
1/3 cup vegetable shortening (1/4-inch diced) and well chilled
5 tablespoons ice water
1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Preparation

Sift flour and salt together then add sugar.
Cut in butter and shortening with the “two knifes method” or pastry blender.
Add water and vinegar a half teaspoon at a time and mix by hand into the flour mixture until the mixture holds together. (Do not over mix!)
Divide the dough into two portions, wrap in plastic film, and refrigerate for 5 -10 minutes.
Remove a portion one at a time and roll out on a floured board, either for a bottom crust or a top crust.
Place the first portion for a double crust pie in the bottom on a 9-inch pie pan.
After your filling is placed inside, cover with second portion of rolled dough (or make a second crust for a cream pie or pie with a crumble topping).
Press and crimp the edges of the pie shell well.
Vent with cuts into the top crust.
Using an egg wash, generously brush the entire exposed crust.
Sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake at 400 degrees for the first 15 minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes longer until the crust is golden brown.

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