Baking The Perfect Pie

By Addie

Easy as Pie

Grandma always told us that a great pie was the result of a great crust. Though she adjusted most of her recipes to use refrigerated or prebaked pie crusts for simplicity, she took much pride in making her own.

Making a homemade pie crust is as simple as 3-2-1. That’s 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, and 1 part water, measured by weight. Remember this ratio and you can whip up a pie anytime. Grandma also added a bit of salt to enhance the taste.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces all purpose flour
• 8 ounces cold butter, cut into small chunks
• 4 ounces ice water

Preparation

Step 1

1) Add the salt to the flour and mix.

2) Cut the butter into the flour mixture, using a pastry blender or 2 knives to make a flaky or mealy dough*. Add the water a little a time, mixing with your hands, until the dough is evenly moistened, but still loose and somewhat-jagged looking. Do not overwork the dough.

3) Gently press the dough into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour before rolling.
.............................

*Two Types of Pie Dough: Flaky & Mealy

Both flaky and mealy pie dough are made from the same ingredients. The difference between the two is how the fat is blended into the flour. The resulting textures of each determine which kind of pie they are best suited for.

With a flaky pie dough, the fat is rubbed into the flour to form large nuggets, about the size of peas. Flaky dough is used for top crusts and lattices such as with Grandma’s Backyard Pie. It is also used for prebaked or “blind baked” shells (see hints and tips) used for pudding or cream pies, like Chocolate Banana Cream Pie. Flaky pie dough is very tender and shouldn’t be used to underline a filling that is too moist, as it will soak through and make the pie soggy.

For mealy pie dough, the fat is blended into the flour more thoroughly until it resembles coarse corn meal. Mealy pie dough is best used as a bottom crust for moister fillings like fruit and custard pies such as Grandma’s Apple Cherry Pie, Maple Syrup Pie, or Farmhouse Lemon Meringue Pie, because it is stronger and resists soaking through.