Pie Crust 101

It is with very sore muscles that I sit here blogging tonight.  (Thank goodness for our new - extra cushy - computer chair.)  On the way to church this morning, my son asked if I wanted to go mountain biking with him - duh, yes!  Now that he's 16 it seems like the opportunities to hang out with him are farther and fewer between so I jumped at the chance to spend the afternoon together.  I was thrilled that he offered to spend his Sunday biking with me so I dropped everything that was on my calendar for the day, we loaded the bikes into the truck and headed off to the trails.  It was my first ride of the season and it definitely wasn't my best ride.  I took a couple of spills and I ended up with a popped tire about 8 miles into the ride.  It didn't really matter that the biking wasn't great, it was the company that was most important to me.  In my mind, it was a wonderful Sunday afternoon - hanging out with my favorite 16 year old.

Before I sat down to rest my tired legs for the night, I did manage to get a couple of pies baked.  I love fruit pies and with strawberries in season now and blueberry season just around the corner, it's time for me to get busy on my first fruit pies of the season.  The trickiest part of making any pie is the crust - with that said, this blog is dedicated specifically to making the perfect pie crust.   I use a very basic pie crust recipe that I make in my food processor.  This is definitely NOT what they will teach you in pastry school as the proper technique for flaky pastry dough but it works for me.  (Sometimes you have to throw technique out the window and do what works.)

Pastry Dough
2 ½ cups flour                            16 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt                           1/3 cup ice water
1 Tablespoon sugar                    3 Tablespoons sour cream

Process flour, salt and sugar in cuisinart.

Cut in butter and pulse 10 times.

Mix water and sour cream with a fork.

Add mixture to flour and pulse 3 seconds.  (Just until dough forms a ball.)

 
Divide dough in half and flatten each into a disk.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

I have a fancy pie rolling mat to use but quite honestly, I prefer to roll out all of my crusts on my granite countertop.

I lightly dust the counter with flour and then I roll each half into a circle.  (I usually end up with more of a rectangle than a circle but that really doesn't matter.)

At this point I either, roll the crust onto the rolling pin or I fold it into quarters to transfer it to my pie plate.  Both methods work equally well, it just depends on whether I feel like folding or rolling.

 Gently place the pie crust into the pie plate.

Trim the sides to that they overhang about 1/2 inch.  

Flute the edges by placing the index finger of one hand in between the thumb and index finger of the other hand.  (I wish that I had pictures of this process but I didn't have any available photographers during my crust making.)

I fit 2 pie crusts into pie plates and I had enough dough left over to make a top for one of my pies.  (I like to roll my crust extra thin so I usually get 3 crusts out of this pie dough recipe.)

For one of the pies that I wanted to make, I needed a baked pie shell so I heated a baking sheet in a 425 oven on the lowest rack.  I covered the pie dough with foil before placing it on the baking sheet in the oven. 

Amy's hint:  I have better luck when I refrigerate the dough in the pie plate for at least 15 minutes before baking.  I can't tell you what the science is behind this technique but I know that when I don't refrigerate the dough, the sides tend to collapse in the oven.  You can also use pie weights but I didn't have any so I just skipped that step.

 I baked the pie for 15 minutes, removed the foil and baked it another 10  minutes. 

The crust came out golden and crispy - perfect for my fruit filling. 

I admit that writing a blog about pie crust and not actually showing the finished product is a little anti-climatic.  You will have to hang in there with me for a couple of days until I can get the pies blogged.  If you have a facebook page, you can "like" My Story in Recipes and get a link to my blog updates right on your facebook page. You definitely don't want to miss my blueberry or strawberry pie posts.

I did have one job to do before I could leave on a bike ride yesterday and that was to deliver a baby shower cake.  The theme for the shower was Georgia Tech - just in case you missed my subtleties. 

Ciao!

Pastry Dough
2 ½ cups flour                            16 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt                           1/3 cup ice water
1 Tablespoon sugar                    3 Tablespoons sour cream

Process flour, salt and sugar in cuisinart.  Cut in butter and pulse 10 times.   Mix water and sour cream with a fork.  Add mixture to flour and pulse 3 seconds.  Divide dough in half and flatten each into a disk.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.