[Sca-cooks] Re: Pie Crusts

[Barbara Benson]

Greetings,

I have made pie crusts and such and for some reason have never had any
problem - you can probablly chalk it up to luck. That being said, I have a
crust recipit that pretty much takes all of the touchy feely aspects out of
it and hot hands do not enter into the picture:

>From Sabina Welserin #61 To make a pastry dough for all shaped pies
Take flour, the best that you can get, about two handfuls, depending on how
large or small you would have the pie. Put it on the table and with a knife
stir in two eggs and a little salt. Put water in a small pan and a piece of
fat the size of two good eggs, let it all dissolve together and boil.
Afterwards pour it on the flour on the table and make a strong dough and
work it well, however you feel is right. If it is summer, one must take meat
broth instead of water and in the place of the fat the skimmings from the
broth. When the dough is kneaded, then make of it a round ball and draw it
out well on the sides with the fingers or with a rolling pin, so that in the
middle a raised area remains, then let it chill in the cold. ...
My intrepretation:
3 C - Flour
1 t - Kosher salt
2 - Eggs, beaten
1/3 C - Water
1/3 +1/4 C - Lard
Measure flour into a goodly size bowl and add salt. Stir together with a
knife. Crack eggs into a separate bowl and beat moderately, add eggs to
flour mixture and cut together with a knife until you all egg has been
absorbed and you have a crumbly textured flour. In a small saucepan combine
water and lard, melt and bring to a boil. Add boiling lard mixture to bowl
and combine until well mixed and cool enough to handle. Turn out onto table
and knead a bit, adding flour if the dough is sticky or greasy. Pat dough
into a disk shape and wrap with plastic - place in refrigerator. Allow to
cool for at least an hour. Roll out on a well floured surface. This makes
enough for two tarts or one covered tart.

I have also made this subbing shortening for the lard and I go with 2/3 C of
shortening. The resulting dough is easier to work with than the lard based
dough. The lard based dough can be a bit fiddly when you roll it out, if it
gets too warm it starts tearing and sticking. I have only had this problem
when making many small tarts out of a doubled recipie. To fix that I have
taken to making sure that the dough is seperated into single crust disks and
kept in the fridge until needed. And if it gets too warm when I am working
with it I jsut re-wrape it and chuck it back into the firdge and work with
another disk.

The other thing I have found is that if it is allowed to stay in the fridge
for more than a couple of hours the dough gets tough. I once kept it
overnight and the crust I formed the next day was very tough and didn't have
the nice flavor that it does initially. Conversely, once the crust is baked
it keeps very well.

If you feel like trying this please let me know how your crust comes out an
dif my instructions are confusing in any way.

Hope this helps.
Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva

> Samrah [or anyone else for that matter]:  I have never managed to learn
> the Dao of Pie Crusts, which is more of an art than a mere craft.  Could
> you teach me?
>
> Humbly, Selene C.