Perfect-ish Pie Crust

The "ish" part is up to you!

I honestly don't know that I have ever eaten a pie and said "this crust just ruined it for me!"  Though crust is very important, it is not the horrible thing to be feared that old women make it out to be.  I've heard grandmothers tell me they just buy the pillsbury pie crusts because they are so much easier......really?  How hard is it...honestly?  I don't want to pick on pillsbury here...they make some awesome over priced flaky biscuits, but I'm cheap.  I can make about 10 crusts for what it costs to take the easy way out (I haven't actually done a cost analysis but that's a safely exaggerated guess I'm sure.)  I have to admit I have made a lot of pie crusts so I have lots of experience, and I have spent countless hours reading blogs and books on baking trying to perfect the process, so I am not a complete amateur, but really it ain't that hard.

The best way to go about it is as follows, and the only special utensil I use is a pastry blender (not a power tool, looks like a sideways whisk)

I played around with lard one time because I had some crazy idea that since that's what they originally used to make pie crusts, that's what I should use.....Bad idea! There is a reason somebody invented Crisco.  Lard makes your pie crust taste like a pig!  Maybe it was all just in my head, but I definitely tasted pig in my pie when I tried it, and it was such an amazing pie that I ruined too!  So stick with butter.  You can play around with Crisco, but I just like the way the word butter makes me feel about myself....you can't say it without cracking a little half-smile, just like Bacon....see I just smiled a little when I typed that!

3 cups of flour

1/2 lb cold butter

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar (optional/debatable)

5-8 Tbsp iced water

Combine your dry ingredients so that you don't have a super salty bite along the way somewhere.

Here's where the flaky part comes in, you have to use cold butter.  When I first started making crusts I always screwed up because I used room temperature butter so it would combine easier.  But that's not what you are going for here.  Clumpy is good.  

Take your butter and slice 1/4 inch long pieces off and throw it into the flour.  I like to stir it around so each slab of butter gets coated with flour so it doesn't just stick to the other pieces as you throw them in.  

Using your pastry blender cut the butter into the flour.  As you do this you will add a little bit of iced water, about a tablespoon at a time, to achieve the proper consistency.  To use the pastry blender just push down through the bowl, then twist it half a turn and pull out...repeat until you have something that looks like pie crust.  Make sure and don't add too much water or it will be sticky.  However if you do, you can always add more flour. 

This is what it should look like once you're done
mixing everything together.Use your
hands to work it into balls.

Remember recipes are guidelines not laws!!!!!!!!!

Divide the dough into 2 balls and put in the freezer till you're ready to use them.  If you are making a pie right away you can skip the freezer, but having the dough cold while working with it seems to help with the flakiness.  If you are going to freeze them for a while wrap with plastic wrap first.

Mini Chocolate Cream Pies

I woke up this morning and decided to make miniature chocolate cream pies to take to church.  I volunteered to start making a little something for our churches coffee house service.  They're trying to go for a coffee shop feel with an acoustic set rather than the big band and we have tables set up and serve coffee and refreshments.  Last week I brought the pioneer woman's vanilla bean scones but this morning I woke up with chocolate cream pie on the brain....

After searching the kitchen I discovered I did have all the ingredients I needed...surprisingly the recipe I have for cream pies does not contain any cream at all.  I wonder if instead it should be called a chocolate meringue pie.

I've been hearing all about personal pies and pies-in-a-jar and pie pops.  I actually looked at how one lady is making the pie pops yesterday, but other then that I'm not sure what others are doing for small pies but here's how I did mine.

I made my new favorite crust which is 3 cups flour, 2 sticks butter, 1T sugar, 1t salt and enough iced water to make it feel the way its supposed to feel.  I stuck the dough in the freezer for a little while, but I don't really think it's necessary for these little guys.  There is way too much going on in such a tiny little specimen for you to really discern whether the crust is perfectly flaky or not.

Roll out the crust as you would normally but use a circular cutter to cut it for your personal sized pies.  I used the bowl off this chopper thing I have which is about 3" diameter.  Don't worry if you can't find the perfect sized cutter, you can always use an under sized one, you just make your crust a little too thick, then cut, then roll it out which makes your circle bigger.

Plop the crust into your muffin pan and work it to the bottom with the excess coming up the sides.  If you want deep dish crust then just use a bigger cutter.  *You need to remember to poke holes in the bottom of your crusts to keep them from bubbling....Mine still bubbled a bit but not as bad as they would have, I just pushed the bubbles back in while it was still hot.

These little guys get baked at 450F for about 12 minutes.

Go ahead and make all your little crusts before you start on the pie filling, otherwise it's a juggling act trying to do it all at once.  The recipe I used gave me enough filling for 24 pies and a sandwich.  Fortunately I managed to squeeze out 24 crusts so it worked rather well.
 

I used the filling recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cook book, but it whatever filling you choose should be just fine.  If making in bulk you might even cheat and use some instant pudding.

Spoon the filling into the crust and top with meringue, then bake at 350F for about 12 minutes (until the meringue starts to brown).

 And then  with your leftover pie filling you make a peanut butter and chocolate sandwich!!!!!