Editorial on PIe

[skeptic7]

Washington Post had an opinion piece where the author was lamenting the good old days of pie. Which seemed to be when she had an over indulgent mother and grandmother who kept her supplied with pies on all occasions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/01/america-forgot-how-to-make-pie-crust/

The reason I don't make pies more often is that a pie crust has a truly spectacular amount of butter/lard/oil/crisco.

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[Mike Nolan]

I've had some commercial pies where eating the cardboard box the pie came in might have been a taste upgrade. Fortunately, I learned how to make a delicious pie crust at SFBI.

[BakerAunt]

Hmm--I thought that I had posted the Oil-Buttermilk-part whole wheat pastry flour crust that I have developed over the past three years, but I cannot locate it. Would you like for me to post it Skeptic? I've not tried it with a top crust; for the pies I bake these days, I use a single crust and sometimes a streusel topping (a bit of butter in the streusel and avocado oil for the rest of the fat).

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
No thank you. I have an oil pie crust recipe that works for me when I have to have pie. I think I tried your pie crust and found the buttermilk harder to work with. There are times when I absolutely have to have pie.

[cwcdesign]

I finally had a chance read this article and I certainly agree with it. I have always struggled to make a good pie crust, so tend to stay away from it. I have made 2 good ones that I can think of and I know that they worked because I took my time, carefully followed directions so that I could handle them less and roll out lightly - I found that one problem I have is that my hands can tend to be too warm for the crust.

They do take a while to do well and I have always admired people who can "whip up a pie crust."

[Mike Nolan]

My instructor at the SFBI pastry school probably thought I was never going to get a good pie crust made, and I do admit it took me 3-4 tries after I got back home to get the knack, but once you've got it down, good tasting pie crusts aren't difficult.

One of the reasons I developed the pie dough chart was so I could size the pie dough correctly, having too much dough means a crust that is too thick or a lot of wasted dough, having too little dough means working it harder to stretch it to fit the pan, and that toughens the crust.

I've tried RLB's cream cheese pie dough a couple of times, while I think I'm making it correctly, we prefer the all-butter one I learned at SFBI.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Wow. Amazing article and especially coming from Megan McArdle who from her blogging and talking knows what she is doing in the kitchen and appears fearless.

CWC, I sympathize with having hot hands. My pastry-chef room mate came into the kitchen once to find me with my hands in bowls of ice to cool them while I decorated a cake. I've found that food safe gloves give a little insulation and help. I also cool my crusts more to try to make up for this.

My problem has not been making crusts that taste good it is making crusts that look nice. I suspect much of it is, like some of you here, taking time and practice. I don't make them often and I am usually rushed when I do.

It's the same with cakes. Time and practice

[Mike Nolan]

I've concluded the fancy fluting on the edges is largely a waste of time and pie crust, in part because I'm terrible at it, but also because far too often most of that edge gets left on the plate. So I've been making simpler edges of late, and it makes the pie look better/cleaner, if simpler, too. (I still like doing a lattice crust for a cherry pie, though my wife prefers a non-latticed top.)

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