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Thanksgiving
Pies
Let the pie be the showpiece of your
Thanksgiving Day feast this year. We've provided some tips on making perfect pie
crusts every time. Pick your filling and bake! Pies are delicious served with
ice cream, whipped cream, and a custard sauce.
Perfect Crusts
The Science
Types of Pie Crust
Fats
Recipes
Perfect Crusts
For a flavorful, tender, and
flaky pie crust use cold fat: butter, shortening, or lard. Cold fat (and a light
touch) prevents gluten in the flour from forming, which makes the dough tough.
Cold fat also stays solid longer in a hot oven, which allows steam from the
melting fat to puff the dough, creating lots of pockets of tender flakes.
To use butter, be sure to use
good quality name brand unsalted butter with low water content (more butter fat,
which means more flavor).
Size of the fat chunks
matters, too. Big chunks produce flakiness; small chunks make a more tender
crust, crumbly in texture. Use an even combination of small and large (pea- and
grape-sized) chunks for a flaky AND tender crust.
The Science
Fat
causes pastry
to be flaky because it coats the gluten strands and causes them to slide over
each other, instead of sticking to each other. It also makes it harder for the
flour to absorb the water, thereby, making a flaky crust.
Types of Pie Crust
All pie crusts are made with
flour, fat, salt, and water. The proportions of ingredients and the type of fat
change from style to style.
American: American pies
crusts tend to contain an even percentage of lard and butter, which results in a
flaky and flavorful crust. Shortening used in American pie crusts results in a
more tender product with less flavor. Used for baked custard pies and single-
and double-crust fruit-filled pies.
Pâte Brisée: The
classic proportions of this short bread crust is 3:1, flour to fat. This dough
is extremely flaky and tender, with a melting in the mouth quality. This is the
classic dough used for free-form tarts and quiches.
Pâte Sucre: This is a
Pâte Brisée with sugar added to the dough. It is more crumbly, with a
cookie-like texture. It may or may not contain egg.
Fats
The higher proportion of fat
in a pie crust will produce a more tender crust (more fat=more tender). The use
of butter will produce a flakier crust than other fats.
Butter: Butter
is only 80% fat, which results
in the best taste, flavor, and color. Be sure to use a good quality UNSALTED
butter to ensure freshness and flavor
Lard:
Lard is 100% animal fat, usually rendered from pork. It produces an extremely
tender crust which has little flavor.
Shortening: Shortening is 100% vegetable fat. Pie crusts made from
shortening are tender. Butter flavored shortenings produce a tender and
flavorful crust.
Oil:
The use of oil produces a very mealy crust, something like crumbled cookies.
Margarine: The use of margarine to make a pie crust should be avoided; it
produces a mushy, unpalatable crust full of transfats.
Recipes
Tarte Tatin
Pear and
Pumpkin Pie with Caramelized Pumpkin Seeds
Savory
Cranberry Tartlets
To learn more about holiday pie and tart making,
enroll in our Pies and Tarts 101 Recreational Class
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