Don't fear the crust

Since writing about pie, I've heard that many people are intimidated by pie crust. There have been quite a few people that point out that you can buy pie crust in the freezer section now. And it's not bad. In a pinch, it would probably do just fine. But really, are you ever "in a pinch" when it comes to pie crust? It's not like it goes out of season.

I like a crisp, flaky crust. I've found that I generally like to blind bake my crust in advance. Blind baking is baking the crust prior to putting in the filling. It's not always possible, such as with double crust pies. But when it's possible, I think it makes a better crust.

One common problem with blind baking is the pie crust sliding down the side of the pan. This is especially true of crusts that have a high butter content, as the fat melts prior to the structure of the crust setting. One solution, my favorite solution, is to bake the crust upside down. You read that correctly.

This is a great crust to put something sweet and soft in, like maybe chocolate pudding, or chocolate mousse. Yum.

Here are ten steps to making a fine (and not difficult) crust. And you get to bake it upside down.

1 C. flour

¼ C. Wondra

½ tsp. salt 

6 Tbsp. butter, cut into 1/2 tablespoon sections, kept cold

½ C. sour cream

You will also need two identical pie pans (like the cheap metal ones,) and parchment paper.

#10 Get fresh ingredients. If you can't remember when you bought that butter sitting in your fridge, it's most likely not fresh. Unless you're like me, and you go through so much butter in your life that buying it is nearly a weekly activity.

Maple Walnut Pie - Who Knew Syrup Was For More Than Pancakes?

Guest Written by the Pie Guy’s Wife

When my husband came up with the idea of a pie blog I was, to say the least, skeptical about the possibility of it coming into fruition. Then the planner part of me started in and helped sketch out a whole year of pies so if we decided to do this we were completely read to dive in for 52 weeks of a different pie each week. Yes, the Pie Guy will tell you I have a problem. I think he has actually, at least once.

When we started filling in the months after choosing some seasonal favorites I looked up National Holidays to tie into. In December I found National Syrup Day celebrated December 17^th. The Pie Guy has a bit of an obsession with maple syrup. He stops at a specific restaurant on our trips to his parents’ house to pick up“local” syrup that he hasn’t found an equivalent to local to our home. He also had a friend who swears by Grade B syrup, which we finally located in time to make this week’s pie.

A Tale of Two LMPs

On a business trip recently, a quick Yelp search yielded a result that sounded promising. A local diner, more than one person gushed about their desserts. Specifically, they gushed about their pie. Including this teaser:

"The pies...you must try coconut creme or lemon meringue."

So, of course, I went.

Look, Ma! No Pan!

Your average pumpkin or apple pie at Thanksgiving looks good. It looks like some effort has gone into the crust, maybe a top crust, possibly some artistically piped whipped cream. It's charming, in it's own way. It looks like the boy or girl next door, plenty attractive, but not likely to star in a movie. And really, we like them (both the pie, and the neighbor,) just the way they are.

There are pies that are all dolled up. They sport carefully cut out top crusts in the shape of autumn leaves, perfect lattice tops, delicately brushed with milk and sprinkled with glistening sugar, and they stand out among the plainer specimens around them. They're the prom queens and kings of pie. They might be made by pastry chefs or the neurotic woman that goes to your church. Carefully coiffed, every meringue wisp artistically draped and singed, just enough of the filling showing to show what they got. They look great, and they look like a lot of work.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

It’s not about what I know, it’s about what I don’t know.

When we started this blog, my wife sat down and wrote out a schedule of pies to make. I brainstormed 52 topics, she typed them up and fit them into a calendar that would make sense from a seasonal standpoint.  That way, I wasn't making Strawberry Pie in December and Apple Pie in June. And this week’s topic was Chocolate Pecan Pie.

It starts with a completely pre-baked crust. I wanted to try out a new crust, so I made it up, carefully followed the finicky directions about temperature and cooling the ingredients and letting the crust rest. I rolled it out, fit it into the pie pan, docked the crust, let it cool more in the fridge, and put it into a hot oven to bake.  Then I sat down to write a blog post about how much stuff I knew about pie crust. It was going to be great.

After ten minutes, I looked in the oven to find disaster. Despite the docking, the crust had inflated in the middle and slipped down the sides of the pan. This wouldn't do, this wouldn't do at all. I tried to poke holes in the middle and maybe stretch it back, but I've been down this road before and knew that it was over before I started.

It’s not about what I know, it’s about what I don’t know.

Pumpkin Pie

Every year at this time, some people ask me if I roast my own pumpkins for my pumpkin pie. Then they look at me like they expect me to say something half-crazy.

In their minds, roasting your own pumpkin is close to killing your own chickens, curing your own corned beef, or canning your own applesauce. They think it's too much work, they invariably mention that you can buy these items in the store, carefully sanitized and wrapped in plastic.

I haven't killed my own chickens, yet. I've never made my own corned beef, but I have made my own applesauce.  And I can tell you that homemade applesauce is hands-down better than anything I can buy in the store.  And yes, I do roast my own pumpkins.

Lori's Apple-Cranberry Pie

In the list of human failings, soggy pie crust is probably not the worst. Compared to child exploitation, nuclear proliferation, or suicide terrorism, it doesn't really rate. It’s totally a first-world problem.

But soggy pie crust is its own horror. One of the great characteristics of pie is that the crust has the potential to introduce texture into a dessert.

Texture isn't talked about much with desserts, but it’s very important. While you can make a pretty great dessert with only one texture, such as chocolate pudding, different textures elevate dessert to the sublime, the wonderful, maybe even artistic. I think that one of the driving factors behind the cupcake craze of the last decade has been the ease that cupcakes introduce texture to dessert. Beyond the cake, there was always a frosting (another texture,) often a topping (another texture,) and sometimes a filling (you get my point, right?)  Pie has similar possibilities: a well executed pie already has different textures built in.

Thus, my revulsion with soggy pie crust. When given the opportunity to create texture in an otherwise fine dessert, the creator of the pie instead chose a path that resulted in a crust that absorbed moisture and slowly became one with the filling. Where the filling ends and the crust begins is hard to determine. Furthermore, pie can be wonderful finger food, just pick up a piece and carry it back to the football game if your wife isn't watching. But you can’t do that with soggy crust.

Election Special - Hypocrite Pie

It began with an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner. I invited my future wife to join my family at the day-after-Thanksgiving meal and euchre tournament that has been held at my cousin’s house for as long as anyone can remember. I probably said something along the lines of: “We ought to make something to take along, huh?”

We were young. I was twenty-three and she was twenty-two. We hadn't lived a lot of life yet, hadn't had a ton of time to learn to cook. I had just graduated from college and was just starting to find my way into the kitchen. We had no clue, on so many levels.

My future wife being the woman that she is, she went to Borders and bought the biggest dessert cookbook she could find, “Classic Home Desserts,” by Richard Sax. We made the apple pie recipe as a test, called it good (it still is) and made it to take with us to this family gathering. The cookbook went back on the shelf.  We had no idea how much of an influence that book would have on the rest of our lives.