19 February 2018
Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2018
When making pie crust I generally use the Test Kitchen "Foolproof Pie Dough" from 2010 which includes vodka. The alcohol provides moisture, ensuring the dough is workable, but leaves the crust tender minimizing the development of gluten. I am not confident in my pie-making ability, probably due to lack of practice. I find it difficult to roll the dough into a nice circle, lay it evenly in a pie plate, create an attractive edge, etc. So when a new recipe was published in a recent Cook's Illustrated I wanted to give it a try to see if some more practice and a new dough would help boost my confidence.
What sets this recipe apart is the method used to combine butter with the dry ingredients. Most of the flour is combined with sugar and salt. The flour mixture is blitzed in a food processor with most of the butter, which has been chilled and cubed, to form a smooth paste. The paste is broken into pieces, the remaining flour is added, and this is processed until the mixture forms small pieces. The remaining butter, which has been grated then frozen, is added to the mixture which is tossed to coat the grated butter with flour. Ice water is added and the mixture is mixed to moisten the ingredients. The dough is formed into a disk and refrigerated. Once chilled it is rolled out, baked, and filled with chocolate pudding. Preparing the dough took 35 minutes. After chilling another 20 minutes was taken to roll out the dough including 10 minutes of room-temperature resting, followed by 40 minutes for baking.
I found this to be a very nice dough to work with. It was the easiest dough to roll out that I remember, there was no tearing of the dough and it did not stick at all to the rolling pin or counter top. However, after blind baking (using pie weights and aluminum foil) it shrunk considerably, slumping into the pie plate. It was flaky and tender, so good to eat. It was a great dough to work with and a great crust to eat so definitely worth trying again. My confidence has perhaps improved a little, but there is certainly room for it to grow with more practice.
What sets this recipe apart is the method used to combine butter with the dry ingredients. Most of the flour is combined with sugar and salt. The flour mixture is blitzed in a food processor with most of the butter, which has been chilled and cubed, to form a smooth paste. The paste is broken into pieces, the remaining flour is added, and this is processed until the mixture forms small pieces. The remaining butter, which has been grated then frozen, is added to the mixture which is tossed to coat the grated butter with flour. Ice water is added and the mixture is mixed to moisten the ingredients. The dough is formed into a disk and refrigerated. Once chilled it is rolled out, baked, and filled with chocolate pudding. Preparing the dough took 35 minutes. After chilling another 20 minutes was taken to roll out the dough including 10 minutes of room-temperature resting, followed by 40 minutes for baking.
I found this to be a very nice dough to work with. It was the easiest dough to roll out that I remember, there was no tearing of the dough and it did not stick at all to the rolling pin or counter top. However, after blind baking (using pie weights and aluminum foil) it shrunk considerably, slumping into the pie plate. It was flaky and tender, so good to eat. It was a great dough to work with and a great crust to eat so definitely worth trying again. My confidence has perhaps improved a little, but there is certainly room for it to grow with more practice.
Some comments on how to blind bake a crust so it doesn't slump: https://www.facebook.com/groups/197411740727920/permalink/388222068313552/
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