A different pie crust technique

I mention this article for the pie makers in the virtual 'hood. [Pie crust being something I don't do at this point in my culinary history.] It involves melted lard and a very cold marble slab:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/magazine/19FOOD.html?

[and the title is kinda ironic, considering]


Giovanna

HI,

I plan a round of pie baking this week. I will give the above crust a whirl as well as Mike G's pie crust and pie crust from Harold McGee, which you alerted us to last Thanksgiving. You are ever so alert on the idiosyncratic pie crust recipe trail, which I really appreciate.

The stars are really lining up to make this crust since I have the freezer, the marble slab, the marble rolling pin and two quarts of leaf lard. Somewhere I also have a rolling pin cover. I have no excuses. So I will take pictures, taste and let you know.

NY Times wrote:Lard Pie Crust
For the dough:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (1 cup) lard.
...

1. Place a marble pastry slab and marble rolling pin in the freezer until very cold, at least 4 hours.
2. To make the pie dough, in a medium bowl, whisk the flour and salt together. Place the lard in a glass measuring cup and microwave on high until almost but not completely melted, about 1 minute. Remove from microwave and stir until completely melted. Pour into 1-cup measuring cup and then remove 2 tablespoons of the lard. Add 2 tablespoons of water and mix; you should have exactly 1 cup liquid. Stir liquid into flour with a wooden spoon for a few seconds until the dough holds together.
3. Remove the slab and pin from freezer. Flour the slab lightly. Place a cloth cover on the marble rolling pin and flour lightly. Working quickly, roll the dough out to a thickness of between 1/8 and 1 1/816 inch. If the dough is sticky and doesn't roll smoothly, it may be too warm; pop the whole thing (slab and dough) back in the freezer for a few minutes to chill it before working it again. If the dough is too stiff and begins to crack and shatter, it is too cold; walk away for a few minutes and then try working it again. Use your fingers to press together any cracks or fix any holes in the dough.
4. Invert a 9-inch pie plate onto one side of the dough. Using a paring knife, cut a circle around it, making the circle 1/2 inch larger in diameter than the plate. Using 2 spatulas, loosen the dough from the slab; it should be very stiff and come up easily in one piece. (If it sags or sticks, pop the whole thing back in the freezer for a few minutes.) Lift the dough with the spatulas and center it over the pie plate. Let it sit on the plate until it warms up and sags into the plate. (Don't worry if it has some cracks.) Press the edges in gently with your fingers and fix any tears by pressing the dough together. Crimp the edges.
5. Cut small basset-hound shapes, or any decorations you like, from the remaining dough. Set aside. (filled pied with a berry filling, then laid basset hound cut-outs on top)

Regards,

And now for something completely different:

In "The Man Who Ate Everything," Jeffery Steingarten describes what he thinks is a virtually foolproof system for making flaky pie crusts, and which violates almost every standard rule for doing same. I won't post the recipe here, because he lists so many possible variations and their effects on the finished product (and I don't want to violate any copyright laws), but I'll cite some of the ways he breaks the rules:

1. No insistance on absolutely cold rolling pin or rolling-out surface

2. Don't chill the dough unless you need to. If you have to put it in the refrigerator, take it out and give it 5 - 10 minutes to bring it back to room temp before rolling it out.

3. He recommends home-rendered lard if possible, cooled for thee days and then brought back to just below room temperature before adding it to the flour. Short of that (no pun), he suggests Crisco, or a mix of butter/Crisco or butter/lard.

4. His ratio of 3 (lightly-packed) cups unbleached all-purpose flour to 1 1/2 cups fat to 1/2 cup water - uses far more water than most recipes suggest.

5. He recommends using fingers to mix the fat and flour - but only if you use a specific technique involving picking up the fat and flour - palm up - and rubbing your thumb over your slightly separated fingers.

DON'T try this without reading the rest of the chapter in his book; he has a lot of specifics that need to be done right, but they're pretty easy, and are about the fastest way I've ever tried to make a decent pie crust. (Disclaimer - I only tried it once, but it worked.) He also goes into some relatively extensive scientific explanations as to why his counterintuitive methods can produce an excellent pie crust.

HI,

My standard don't-think-just-do-it crust is 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup Crisco and 5 tablespoons water (which is 1 tablespoon past a 1/4 cup). Steingarten's use of water doesn't throw me, in fact I believe a lot of crust failures comes from too little water. The substantial addition of fat just means it will be flakier.

I have used a Cuisinart to cut fat into dough and do the final mixing. I no longer use it because it introduces too much heat into the dough. I would shy away from using my hands due to heat as well. I use a pastry cutter and very lightly mix in the water. Once the dough begins to mass, I then press it together because you don't need glutten to be activated. I advise people the crust should feel like Play Dough.

I don't chill my dough because you cannot roll it out immediately when you take it out. You have to wait for it to warm up enough to be pliable to roll out, which eliminates the usefullness of chilling in opinion. If I am using butter, then I would be more careful and maybe put it in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes because of its low melting point.

I also feel people put too much flour on the surfaces they are rolling out the crust. This has the effect of drying the crust, making it more brittle and difficult to handle. I roll out the crusts between wax paper using scant amount of flour.

I'll have to read that chapter because so far there is much more I agree with than I disagree.

I am interested in trying the Harold McGee technique just for chuckles ... I am simply curious on the melted lard, frozen slab technique just to see what it is really like. I may as well throw in Steingarten's pie crust into the mix just as another comparative especially since my lard is home rendered.

I am sure all these crusts work for the authors'. I guess it is like a lot of things, you find a technique which works for you and stick with it.

Regards,

what a coincidence. I made Steingarten's pie crust on Saturday for use on a two crust strawberry pie.

If you read the entire chapter, I think he alludes to the fact that some people actually prefer the 1 cup crisco, 10 tablespoons of butter mixture over the taste of lard in their pies. Mainly to make use of ingredients already on hand, I opted for this mixture. This is my second attempt at this pie crust recipe.

The crust probably should be chilled just a few minutes before rolling, since mixing butter and crisco into the flour by hand certainly does introduce enough heat to begin melting the butter a little.

My wife and I probably make about 1-2 pies per month, and to date, this weekend's version was the best combination of flaky and tender. It was quick to make and reflected all that I expect in a pie crust.

Postscript: the strawberry pie turned out great. I was actually concerned that the berries we used were too tart. I offset this by using a bit less than an extra tablespoon of sugar in the filling and this actually resulted in a better tasting filling. More "strawberry-y" if you know what I mean.