Easy as Pie
To welcome a new family member to the NT crew, one Scrapperton McGregor, I'm making a pie to bring over for a welcome feast.
The best thing about pie - aside from the obvious benefits of pie, for god's sake! - is that it's never as difficult as you imagine and provided you use crisco, it's a vegan delight. Mm-mm vegans.
Here is a basic pastry recipe:
Basic Pastry for Pie
1 cup crisco
1 cup cake and pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
Put all ingredients in a big bowl and cut with a pastry cutter or two cold knives (slicing scissor-like) until a crumbly, roughly pea-sized crumb is the most prominent fashion.
Then add as little ice-cold water as possible to make the dough come together. This will almost definitely be under 1/4 cup.
Divide the dough into slightly unequal parts and form into little balls. Remember the less you handle your balls, the better. If you handle them too much, your dough will be tough. Put them into plastic bags and into the freezer (or fridge, if you're preparing the pastry days in advance).
Meanwhile, prepare whatever fruit you're going to put into your pie. Four or five large apples, peeled and sliced work for my 10" pieplate. I used three and a bag of frozen berries from the supermarket.
If you're using frozen berries, remember to defrost them in a colander or sieve, so as to get as much liquid out of them as possible. Personally, I like to do this over a bowl, and then use the leftover juices as a cocktail.
Tips:
In pastry, the colder the better. Cold pastry will roll out more smoothly, and be easier to handle. Cold hands will keep the pastry cold. Cold cold cold.
Be generous with sugar. This is pie and it's meant to be indulgent. Always more than you think.
Especially important with berry pies, a little bit of cornstarch sprinkled over the fruit with the sugar will keep everything from turning into soup.
Pastry stores. If you have a bowl big enough, make a lot of pastry and freeze it. Then when you want to use some, simply defrost over night in the fridge and voila!
You do not need eggs, vinegar or anything else in your pie crust except what's listed above.
Pie makes a great breakfast.
The best thing about pie - aside from the obvious benefits of pie, for god's sake! - is that it's never as difficult as you imagine and provided you use crisco, it's a vegan delight. Mm-mm vegans.
Here is a basic pastry recipe:
Basic Pastry for Pie
1 cup crisco
1 cup cake and pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
Put all ingredients in a big bowl and cut with a pastry cutter or two cold knives (slicing scissor-like) until a crumbly, roughly pea-sized crumb is the most prominent fashion.
Then add as little ice-cold water as possible to make the dough come together. This will almost definitely be under 1/4 cup.
Divide the dough into slightly unequal parts and form into little balls. Remember the less you handle your balls, the better. If you handle them too much, your dough will be tough. Put them into plastic bags and into the freezer (or fridge, if you're preparing the pastry days in advance).
Meanwhile, prepare whatever fruit you're going to put into your pie. Four or five large apples, peeled and sliced work for my 10" pieplate. I used three and a bag of frozen berries from the supermarket.
If you're using frozen berries, remember to defrost them in a colander or sieve, so as to get as much liquid out of them as possible. Personally, I like to do this over a bowl, and then use the leftover juices as a cocktail.
Tips:
In pastry, the colder the better. Cold pastry will roll out more smoothly, and be easier to handle. Cold hands will keep the pastry cold. Cold cold cold.
Be generous with sugar. This is pie and it's meant to be indulgent. Always more than you think.
Especially important with berry pies, a little bit of cornstarch sprinkled over the fruit with the sugar will keep everything from turning into soup.
Pastry stores. If you have a bowl big enough, make a lot of pastry and freeze it. Then when you want to use some, simply defrost over night in the fridge and voila!
You do not need eggs, vinegar or anything else in your pie crust except what's listed above.
Pie makes a great breakfast.
posted by Jadie | 12:56 PM
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