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Homemade Pie Crust or Die Trying
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I always roll my pie crust out between two sheets of waxed paper. It makes it super easy to transfer to the pie plate.
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 6:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pickles wrote:
Sorry but I have to reply.
Your all engineers (or have minds like one) BUT you use cups???
These things should be scaled by weight.

a cup of flour doesn't give you enough to work out how to do it properly.

If the cup lightly packed and unsifted
unpacked and unsifted
Sifted and lightly packed
siftend and unpacked.
All of these will give you different amounts of flour.

Use an accurate scale it will give you a more consistant crust.
Pastries is an art of science, a science that required accuracy at every moment.

Sorry, I had to say it!!


And none of that matters, in the real world.

As an engineer and avid cook myself, I strongly disagree. If I had to weigh out ingredients on a precision scale to .01g accuracy, and .1mL accuracy for liquids, I'd never cook again.

Minor variations (~5% either way per ingredient except where absolutely crucial) will make near zero noticeable difference to any recipe, period. Cooking and baking tend to be very forgiving of that, this isn't rocket science, and there's no need to make it rocket science, so to speak. I've been cooking regularly for almost a decade, I try at least 2 or 3 new recipes a week, I've never frustrated myself by trying to keep to some ridiculous level of accuracy, and I've never had a recipe fail due to the amount of ingredients used (only my technique Teasing).

Simply put, any variation that does arise can be taken care of by simply paying attention. A bit too much water? Add a little flour. Too dry? Sprinkle a little water and see how it goes. Not the end of the world.

Cups, tea/tablespoons, etc. are handy, easy to use standardized units, found on most every single kitchen tool ever made. Trying to stick to g/mL and an absurd level of accuracy where it's simply not needed is just adding more work and IMO, removing part of the 'fun' of cooking. I'll covert back and forth as needed to get the amounts right, but I stick to the tools I have (fractions of tea/tablespoons/cups) because that's what I have, and that's what's simplest to use.

Most engineers tend to over-complicate things beyond reason, and IMO this is a prime case. Keep it simple, stick to what's already available and readily in use, don't try to re-invent the wheel here, it's just not needed. If you're painstakingly measuring each ingredient to 2 decimal places and looking for 100% accuracy where it makes near zero difference, you're removing part of what's enjoyable about cooking. No bueno.
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:31 am    Post subject: Re: Pie Crust Recipe Options Reply with quote

braveturtl wrote:
Test Kitchen recipe for pie crust on their TV show added 1 tbsp. of vodka after all regular ingredients were added including water to add more moisture for easier rolling where the mixture wouldn't crumble after refrigeration. Their proven theory is that the alcohol cooks off.

In my own recipe I add 1/4 tsp. of baking power to double crust dough. This causes a bit more rise and crisp flakiness to the dough. Would work with any puff pastry type of recipe for pie crust.


I have had success with vodka crusts, too.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/11/cooks-illustrated-foolproof-pie-dough-recipe.html
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