Making Pie Crust, Close-Up 1
Make sure your fat is very cold, and that you cut it into manageable chunks before you tackle it with either a pastry cutter (as shown here) or with a food processor.
Here's what the mix should look like after you've almost finished cutting in the fat but before you add water. You should have a consistency like coarse cornmeal, with some chunks no larger than peas. I've got a little more cutting in to do here.
Your dough should
just hold together. Be very careful adding water or you'll end up with too soggy a dough. It's difficult to adjust things if you add too much water, so err on the side of dry.
perfect pie crust
I'm going out on a limb this thanksgiving and making my mother's very rich and delicious mashed potato pie. The potatoes were mixed with chicken fat, and some well done fried onions and were mashed with hardly any lumps.
The pie crust or crust was actually rolled out into strips and filled with the potatoes and pinched together into a long tube. The rolled up into a round baking dish with a little egg wash.
Any tip on whether I should prepare the crust any differently?
Nervousarnie
Pie Crust Failures
My wife and I failed at two tries to make pie crust today. In the first case we follwed a recipe that asked for shortening and hand mixed the dough. The resultant dough broke up and would not roll into a pie dough that could be picked up without falling apart.
We threw that batch out and tried to make a pie crust with a processor following the recipe in the processor users guide. This recipe used shortening and butter. After adding sufficient water to the mixed flour and fat the dough pulled away from the side of the bowl which is an indication that it was ready to be formed into a ball and rolled out. Prior to rolling out, the dough sat in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This dough also broke up and would not allow it to be picked up without falling apart.
What are we doing wrong?
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