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lierdumoa with help from scalesandfins
Foolproof Pie Dough
- makes one 9-inch double-crust pie with a ridiculously flaky crust or two pie bottoms (ie. single-crust pie) -
The trick to this pie crust is that the inclusion of eighty-proof vodka (or other similar proof alcohol, which is 40% alcohol), adds moistness to the dough without aiding in gluten formation since gluten doesn't form in ethanol. The alcohol vaporizes during baking, resulting in a tender crust. Because of the extra liquid, the dough will be moister than most standard pie doughs and will require up to 1/4 cup more flour.
Ingredients
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar (or 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon Splenda)
If you are using tableware to measure this, a True teaspoon is *usually* roughly a heaping spoonful of the smaller spoon, or two spoonfuls if you are measuring liquid. Ditto for tablespoon measurements.
8 tablespoons (1 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
3 tablespoons cold Smart Balance or other oil-based butter substitute (or substitute with butter)
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces; or 8 tablespoons
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4ish cup cold water
Cold Matters. ESPECIALLY with the shortening/butter, or it'll start to liquify and you'll have a more thoroughly mixed dough than you want. There is BOTH butter and shortening (and Smart Balance) because the different melting temperatures of the oils will create a flakier crust.
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose PASTRY flour
Pastry flour has a specific gluten content and will make your pie crust flakier than if you'd used all-purpose. I've gotten better results actually from using two kinds of flour to get the right gluten content.
Alternately, the reason why gluten is important is because it's a binding agent; depending on your non-gluten flour preference, you might or might not get the same results. To compensate for this, try adding some amounts of honey or egg, the amount would depend on the flour being used. (While sugar can bind in certain situations, these situations usually involve heating the sugar first. The pie dough needs to be bound before heating, prior to the pie innards, because otherwise you'd get a soggier/non-existent crust.)
To make pastry flour, mix
2 parts all-purpose flour, with
1 part cake flour.
Procedure
1. Dry Ingredients - This process is designed to properly distribute the oil into the flour; the end result is a rough mixture of some small pockets of oil surrounded by flour.
2. Add Wet Ingredients - the goal of this step is to make the dough moldable while not breaking the tiny oil bubbles you've spent step 1 making.
3. Dough, meet Pie Pan - how to get the dough into the pie pan with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of tasty end result
More tips and tricks for the rest of the pie-making process in Bootleg Pie. Cheers!
lierdumoa with help from scalesandfinsFoolproof Pie Dough
- makes one 9-inch double-crust pie with a ridiculously flaky crust or two pie bottoms (ie. single-crust pie) -
The trick to this pie crust is that the inclusion of eighty-proof vodka (or other similar proof alcohol, which is 40% alcohol), adds moistness to the dough without aiding in gluten formation since gluten doesn't form in ethanol. The alcohol vaporizes during baking, resulting in a tender crust. Because of the extra liquid, the dough will be moister than most standard pie doughs and will require up to 1/4 cup more flour.
Ingredients
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar (or 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon Splenda)
If you are using tableware to measure this, a True teaspoon is *usually* roughly a heaping spoonful of the smaller spoon, or two spoonfuls if you are measuring liquid. Ditto for tablespoon measurements.
8 tablespoons (1 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
3 tablespoons cold Smart Balance or other oil-based butter substitute (or substitute with butter)
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces; or 8 tablespoons
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4ish cup cold water
Cold Matters. ESPECIALLY with the shortening/butter, or it'll start to liquify and you'll have a more thoroughly mixed dough than you want. There is BOTH butter and shortening (and Smart Balance) because the different melting temperatures of the oils will create a flakier crust.
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose PASTRY flour
Pastry flour has a specific gluten content and will make your pie crust flakier than if you'd used all-purpose. I've gotten better results actually from using two kinds of flour to get the right gluten content.
Alternately, the reason why gluten is important is because it's a binding agent; depending on your non-gluten flour preference, you might or might not get the same results. To compensate for this, try adding some amounts of honey or egg, the amount would depend on the flour being used. (While sugar can bind in certain situations, these situations usually involve heating the sugar first. The pie dough needs to be bound before heating, prior to the pie innards, because otherwise you'd get a soggier/non-existent crust.)
To make pastry flour, mix
2 parts all-purpose flour, with
1 part cake flour.
Procedure
1. Dry Ingredients - This process is designed to properly distribute the oil into the flour; the end result is a rough mixture of some small pockets of oil surrounded by flour.
1a. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until
combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Or mix together thoroughly with a pastry blender
1b. Add shortening (that has moments before been in the freezer) and mix until shortening is coated in flour and broken up into berry-sized bits.
1c. Add butter (that has been in the fridge) and mix until dough will resemble cottage cheese curds, and there is no uncoated flour. (Repeat step with Smart Balance/oil-based butter substitute if you are using them.)
1c. Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade or at the bottom of your mixing bowl.
1d. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Basically until it looks like cottage cheese again, but with some extra uncoated flour hanging about.
1e. Empty dough into mixing bowl if you are using a food processor.
2. Add Wet Ingredients - the goal of this step is to make the dough moldable while not breaking the tiny oil bubbles you've spent step 1 making.
2a. Sprinkle preferably cold vodka (or other 80 proof alcohol) over mixture while, with rubber SPATULA, use folding motion to mix. The folding motion is so that you don't break up the oils too much, you want to keep the pockets oil/flour that you spent step 1 making.
2b. Sprinkle cold water while folding the dough, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky/sticky and sticks together. Feel free to stop adding water when it gets to this point.
2c. Divide dough into two even parts. Wrap each in plastic wrap and form them into balls, then open the first plastic wrap and gently press down with a second piece of plastic, press any cracks that form on the edges together . The end result is a 4 inch disks of dough with a smooth edge, with sandwiched between two flat pieces of plastic wrap. This will make them easier to form into the crust later.
2d. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days, or freeze for a couple minutes. By this time the oils will have started to melt on you so you want to make the dough firmer before you handle it more (thus not breaking the oil bubbles in the dough).
3. Dough, meet Pie Pan - how to get the dough into the pie pan with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of tasty end result
3a. Take your pie pan (roughly 9 inches) and coat it with some sort of oil/butter. Dust the entire surface with flour of choice. This is to prevent stickage when attempting to remove pie from tin.
3b. Stick the pan in the freezer. This is to make sure that the oil is frozen as well as the pan metal.
3b. Take your disk of dough from the fridge/freezer, it should at this time resemble clay you can sculpt with; way firmer than play dough, not liquid at all, holds it shape, and doesn't crack. If it cracks it's too cold, so warm it up a bit. DO NOT REMOVE THE PLASTIC WRAP.
3c. Slap your dough against a hard surface; basically lift the dough and fling it downwards. You should not be holding the dough by the time it hits the surface. This will increase the size of the disk and flatten the dough without messing with more flour. Repeat until the dough is large enough to cover the bottom of the pie pan. Gently squish closed the cracks
Note: sometimes the dough does not want to stick to the plastic wrap, in this case squish it into shape with your fingertips or roll it flat with a pin or a wine bottle.
3d. Take the frozen pie pan out of the freezer. Peel the plastic wraps from the top of the dough and lay the pie pan upside-down over the top and then carefully overturn the whole thing so that the now flat dough covers the bottom with a layer of plastic wrap now on top. Press gently with fingers to have the dough rest on all the pan surfaces evenly.
3f. Stick the pan in the freezer. This step is KEY. Fill the pan with filling only when it seems rock hard. I haven't tested how long the dough is good for after being stuck in there, but I assume at least a day or two.
More tips and tricks for the rest of the pie-making process in Bootleg Pie. Cheers!
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What frustrates me about alot of recipes is that they don't assume that you're an absolute newbie at cooking so it doesn't tell you all the tips and tricks, and some steps are kinda vital if you want really awesome pie.