SC - Pie Reprise

[cassie]

Mark.S Harris wrote:
>
> ---------
> Cutting it into the flour???? For us newbie cooks, what does this
> mean? What is the differance between cutting it in and stirring it
> in? One you use a spoon and one you use a knife? :-)
> 
> Thanks.
>    Stefan li Rous

Precisely. You stir with a spoon, and cut with a knife. Or in the case
of making a pie crust, usually two knives, almost in a  scissors like
fashion (I personally use a pastry cutter, which is a D shaped utensil,
with the handle as the back of the D, and several (about 5) dull blades
on the curve of the D).

Anyhow, with stirring, you push the ingredients together causing them
to bind to each other. With cutting, you make your sticky ingredient
into
smaller and smaller bits, and coating each bit with the dry ingredients.
I personally like to get my bits down to the size of small gravel, no
larger than rock salt. When you have sufficiently cut the ingredients,
then you use your hands with usually a small quantity of water, and pat
the
bits into a ball to be rolled out, (usually after letting the pastry
sitting for a few minutes).

The main difference between stirring and cutting flour in a pastry, is 
that stirring can cause the gluten in the flour to activate and produce
a rubbery texture. This texture I enjoy in breads and pasta. The flour
you see in the store labeled "Better for Breads" is a high gluten
flour. You can even buy gluten to add to all-purpose flour
when you are using it to make breads. Kneading dough for bread is
even better for activating the gluten in flour than stirring.

Cutting minimizes the the activation of the gluten, the flour does
not have the tendency to bind together, which in turn provides
the flaky pie crust.

7 years ago I couldn't make a pie crust to save my life. I read
the cookbooks, but it never came out right. I finally saw someone
make a pie crust from scratch. The technique is very important. 
Nowadays I hardly give a thought to making a pie crust. But 
understanding how ingredients react under different treatments
is very important.

Euriol

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