We were given a couple of cases of blueberries. We decided to turn them into pie, a plethora of pies; Blueberry Pie with crumb topping, Blueberry Custard Pie and Blueberry Pie with a Lattice Crust. If you’re new to LoveFeast Table, then you may not know the love affair I have with homemade pie. I LOVE making pie. My family loves pie. We LOVE eating pie, and sharing pie. Even poets have recognized the power of pie.
“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.” ~Jane Austen
Making a flaky pie crust is a mixture technique, a good recipe, art and quality ingredients. I’ve written about making pie crust before, when I made Peach Raspberry Pie. I wanted to share a few more tips for making a flaky pie crust.
Like I said, use quality ingredients. Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter is an excellent butter that brings just an extra hint of golden color and pure taste to the crust.
I’ve tried making crust in my Kitchen Aid mixer and by hand. But, I find the best crust comes from mixing the dough ingredients in a food processor.
Start by adding the dry ingredients, then adding the cold, chopped butter and cold shortening and pulsing just until it’s just cut in.
Then when adding the ice cold water, a Tablespoon at a time, I look for it to start to come together with chunks of dough big and small. It will look like this. You don’t want it to be powdery, or pull together too much. But, just right. When pinching the dough between your fingers it will hold together.
Then, if my kitchen is cold enough and the humidity is not too high, I roll out the dough right away on a well floured surface. If it is warm, I wrap the dough into discs and chill in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes. Don’t be afraid to use flour when rolling it out.
When I make my disc to roll out, I push the dough together and pat the edges so they are smooth.
My daughter wanted a lesson on rolling the crust out in a circle. I took Baking I in college and a fellow student rolled out the roundest pie crust I had ever seen. She shared her tips with me. Starting in the center of your flattened disc, roll with light pressure out to the edge. Think of the pie crust as a clock. Always starting at the center, roll at 12, 1 1/2, 3, 4 1/2, 6, 7 1/2, 9, 10 1/2 and 12. When rolling, don’t press when rolling the pin, let the natural roll do the work. After your dough is halfway rolled out, gently lift up and add more flour underneath to prevent sticking.
If your crust edges begin to split, gently fold broken seams over one another and gently roll together.
To transfer to your pie pan, fold dough in half.
Then fold in half again.
Place folded corner in the center of the pie pan and gently unfold.
You can see my edges are completely smooth and there is one break in the crust, but with the next step, much of this is forgiven. At this point some bakers like to trim their edges for uniformity all around. I am one of those, “The more it looks homemade the better it will taste” kinda pie bakers. I like it to be a bit rustic and unfinished.
Take your edges and roll them up towards the center of the pie and gently press onto the rim of the dish.
Then, taking the knuckle of your pointer finger on your left hand, press it into the dough while using your pointer finger and thumb of your right hand to wrap the crust around the knuckle. Gently pressing the dough onto the rim of the pie dish.
The above crust is for a one pie crust pie like pumpkin pie or blueberry custard pie with crumb topping.
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 11 tablespoons cold (unsalted) butter, cut into small pieces
- 2½ tabelspoons cold solid shortening
- 5 tablespoons cold waster, plus more as needed
- Combine the flour, sugar, salt, butter and shortening in the food processor. Pulse the machine on and off until the mixture is crumbly.
- Add the water and pulse until the mixture begins to clump together. Gather it into a ball, flatten slightly into a disk and wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes before rolling out.
