Reduntant Pie Crust

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mixfinder

Well-known member
Joined
May 1, 2006
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In a mixer combine

1 cup flour

1/2 cup Crisco

1 Teaspoon salt

Crumble on Low speed for 10 seconds only and turn the mixer off.  If you have a Kitchenaid or Kenwood use a paddle.

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Gently My Dears, Gently

To the crumbled mixture add:

1/4 cup iced water

Turn mixer onto speed one and mix for 5 seconds.

Dough will look shaggy.

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Unstuck

Use LOTS of flour and roll out dough.  Rerolling and overhandling makes dough tough, not too much flour for rolling.  Roll the dough backward over the pin and the unwind it into the pie pan.  Press the dough firmly into the pan and then crimp the crust.  If making a two crust pie leave the salvage edge.

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Twice as Nice

For two crust pie fill the crust with fruit, sugar and flour or tapioca.  Add a drab of butter.  Roll the top crust and cut decorative slits for steam to escape.

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Brownie

Bake pie crust at 425 for 12 to 15 minutes for single crust.  Bake a two crust pie 15 minutes at 425 and 45 minutes at 350.  Now that you see how easy it is you don't need a cook book, fancy tools, a processor, chilled butter or Bernard Clayton to make easy and perfect pies.

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YOURS!

Is Beautiful...mine will have to be re rolled at least twice before it will hold together enough to pick up..LOL!!! What brand flour do you use, I think that may be my problem, I use a very soft winter wheat flour, Virginias Best, I drive over an hour about once a month to get it because it is the closest thing to what Red Band was I have found.
 
OK...for the past four summers, I've said "This is going to be the summer I buckle down and learn how to make pie crust." And for the past four summers, I'd always wind up grabbing a box of Pillsbury unroll-'n'-go crusts in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. They've improved over the years, so they're really pretty good. But I'm feeling some embarrassment at being the guy who makes all his own breads/rolls/sweet rolls but can't make a pie crust. Maybe summer #5 will be the charm.

As always, Kelly, your pies look good enough to grab right off the screen!
 
Hans...

Do you not have Red Band flour there anymore?  We have it all over the place here.  Reckon how much it would cost to ship you a bag?  I use White Lilly flour.  Have you ever used White Lilly?
 
Flour

Unbleached flour absorbs less liquid than bleached.  Dough made from unbleached or pastry flour is softer and "wetter".  For years I used General Mills unbleached since I had been an agent for General Mills I was loyal.  I buy cake and regular flour in 50 pound bags and its harder to find brand names in commercial lines.  The price of flour has doubled i the last 18 monthes and is set to continue rising in cost.  I hate to admit it but I often opt out for the less expensive Western Family unbleached flour.  I love to cook and enjoy making pies but there is nothing wrong with using or enjoying prerolled crusts.  The one thing I draw the line at are preformed shells in the tin pans as that is more reminiscent of short bread to say nothing of the meager portion of filling it holds.

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Kelly,

Does this recipe yield dough for a two-crust pie?
In a mixer combine

1 cup flour

1/2 cup Crisco

1 Teaspoon salt

Crumble on Low speed for 10 seconds only and turn the mixer off. If you have a Kitchenaid or Kenwood use a paddle.
 
Recipe

One cup of flour is enough for one single crust.  2 cups of flour will make a two crust pie.  The ratio is 1/2 as much shortening as flour, 1/2 as much water as shortening and salt to taste.  As long as the ratio is in place you can make one or a 100 crusts.  Cooks makes a pie crust that requires freezing and grating butter, running flour and shortening in a processor.  Dumping it in a bowl and combining the flour mixture with butter and water with vodka.  It is a good crust but not one hour and five bowls better than plain old pie crust.  I think recipe hyperbole is designed to make celebrity chefs look more mysterious.  It does not require as much bowl changing, chilling and fiddling as most chefs would lead you to believe.

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Better let me check

the stores this weekend but as far as I know they still carry Red Band.  Back in the 60's my Mama only used Martha White flour then in the 70's she began using Red Band flour.  She began using White Lilly flour back in the early 80's and never changed brands again.  My mother-in-law used White Lilly flour also - so that is the only flour my wife and I use.  I'll check the stores Saturday for Red Band flour.  The stores around here have all began selling King Arthur flour lately.  I remember back in the 70's listning to the King Arthur Flour Hour on AM late night radio.
 
White Lily

As with many other flours can be a regional thing.

Last time one checked couldn't find White Lily four locally in NY for love nor money.

Much has to do with the distribution system though that may change as more and more small brands are being gobbled up by large conglomerates.

Smuckers for instance purchased White Lily several years back and shut down the Knoxville TN plant

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/dining/18flour.html?pagewanted=all
 
A question for Kelly!

I have moderate success at pie crusts, but long ago I had a recipe that called for the normal things, plus a bit of vinegar. I cannot recall what the portion was, nor can I find the recipe.

Any thoughts? I recall those crusts as being the best I'd ever made.

I still use lard, not shortening. We've not seen White Lily flour here for years, alas.
 
Lard

There's another thing hard to find around here as well. Oh you can get that awful stuff from Armour and others sold in supermarkets, but it is not the same as good leaf lard.

Thing is one has to seek out small independent butchers or organic meat markets, but with demand high they've gotten wise and began upping prices for something once almost given away.

While lard makes great pie/pastry crusts find it best not to provoke any "ewwwwww" responses by just saying one's crusts are made with "shortening". *LOL*
 
Kelly

I had company today for dinner and I made a lemon pie. I used your receipe for a pre-baked pie crust. MMM, it was great! Thanks for the receipe; I even used my 1949 Sunbeam mixer. I usually use an oil crust but it doesn't do well when trying to make a pre-baked shell due to a lot of shrinkage. I can't wait to try this on a two crust apple pie. Thanks again. Gary
 
Hans...Please excuse me!!!!

I'm so sorry.  I wish I had thought before I opened my big mouth the other day.  I honestly thought Red Band flour was still being sold around here.  I remember seeing it sold in the stores but since I've been buying White Lilly flour for 30+ years now I can't remember the last time I've bought a bag of Red Band flour...just thought it would be in Greenville stores forever.  This led to a research project this weekend.  As I bought groceries at Publix Saturday I noticed no Red Band flour.  I asked the store manager who said they have not carried Red Band flour in "a while" and attempts to special order Red Band flour have not been successful.  I stopped by Wal-Mart to buy charcoal and strolled the flour and baking goods aisle and found no Red Band flour.  On the way home I stopped by Ingle's Market and found no Red Band flour.  I spoke with the store manager there who said one day the manifest came from Asheville, NC with Red Band flour crossed out and King Arthur Flour added as the replacement.  He said they have not received any Red Band flour since.  This morning I stopped at the Super Bi-Lo and spoke with the store manager who told me JM Smucker bought out Red Band several years ago.  He said he hated that as he still has customers who request Red Band flour all the time.  When I got to work I Googled Red Band flour and read where J M Smucker did buy Red Band flour out in 2004 and killed the brand in 2009 according to Ms. Katleen Purvis of The Charlotte Observer, Wednesday, April 29, 2009.  I honestly did not realize Red Band flour was gone.  My offer to send you some Red Band flour was a sincere offer of good will and I would have been glad to have done so.  I guess I'm a little wiser and a little humbler now!  FYI, though, from the reviews I read, many of the bakers seemed to like the Aldi and Trader Joe's flours.  My wife I and have enjoyed everything we have bought from both stores.  We've bought brownie, muffin, and cake mixes but not flour.  One of my wife's co-workers bakes her own bread and my wife said she loves the King Arthur flour and suggests we try some in our bread maker.  Do you have an Aldi or Trader Joe's anywhere near you?  
 
Chemist at Work

There is a pie crust recipe with vinegar and egg. Vinegar or any acid reduces the formation of gluten which makes pie crust difficult to roll. Egg added to the dough makes the crust more resistant to absorbing moisture so the crust tends to be more crisp and flaky.
 
According To Bernard Clayton, Jr

In his book "The Complete Book of Pastry, Sweet and Savory"

Acids in the form of vinegar, lemon juice and cream of tartar all mellow the gluten in flour when used in pastry making. This allows the dough to dough to relax faster and thus not pull back as much when rolled out.
 
Vinegar and egg!..Here is my Grandmothers recipe.

She was the best I ever saw making pastry,This is wonderful, but it is hard to handle! tender tender tender!
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
Sift the above,cut in 1 1/4 cups Crisco.
Beat together and add,
1 egg
1 TBSP cold water
1 TBSP vinegar.
I have seen my Grandmother, Mrs Eva Powell, 1902-1988,roll out a sheet of this as big as a 9x13 pan, pick it up and fit it to the pan...and never tear it, I cant even get it in a 9 inch round pan !! I have to roll it on the rolling pin then unroll it in the pan, but it is the flakiest best tasting pastry you ever saw!
In the old days, she used lard, because they killed hogs every year.
 
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