The Pie Crust Manifesto of 2005
I have a confession to make - pie crust has always been one of those things that kinda scared me and I've never really done well. I chalk it up to the fact that the first pie crust I made was for the gargantuan pie plate, and at the time I didn't realize it was a gargantuan pie plate. So I made a standard recipie and made it fit.
Now, for those of you at home who aren't bakers, or who don't know about gargantuan pie plates, let's take a mathematical tangent. Your standard pie plate is 9" in diameter and 1" deep. So you need an 11" round circle of pie crust to fit the plate (9+1+1). The area of a circle is pie times the radius squared, so 5.5^2 * 3.14. Let's estimate and say 36 * 3 = 108 square inches of pie crust. Gargantuan pie plate is 12" in diameter and 2" deep. So a 16" round circle of pie crust. 8^2 * 3.14, so 65*3 = 195 square inches of pie crust. Or approximately 90 MORE square inches of pie crust are needed.
You can imagine my pain, and the thinness of the crust, that first time out making pie. Once I realized that it's about twice as much crust, I just made a double crust recipie and carried on fine. It was always merely adequate, but I figured that if I just made a spectacular filling no one would ever notice whether or not the crust was flaky.
Today I had the task ahead of me to make 4 pie crusts - two for the gargantuan pie, and two for the standard apple pie (top and bottom). Your standard pie crust recipie makes 2 crusts, but I wasn't sure if you could just double the recipie and call it good. Pie crust toes a very fine line between dry flour that won't stick together and a big lump of play doh. Finding that exact spot is the secret to a good pie crust.
My DESIRE was to just double the recipie, as I've got enough on my plate tonight that I'd rather not have to go through the process twice. So I did what any good cook does in this situation and called my Mommy. Her concern was that with that much flour it would be very easy to make a big mess of things. In other words, "I don't want play doh for pie crust, girl." That was my concern, too. Damn, this wasn't going to be easy.
But I'm stubborn, and pressed for time, and decided to just plow ahead with it and make them all in one big bowl. And darn if it wasn't the easiest pie crust ever to make. It's chilling in the fridge right now awaiting filling, so I may come back and change my tune later, but I think I found that perfect balance this time around. With all that extra flour to work with I think it actually gave me a larger margin of error when adding the water, and thus the secret was discovered.
A couple of other notes from the kitchen front:
1. A pumpkin the size of Charlie Brown's head will provide EXACTLY enough pumpkin for a gargantuan pie. No soup or muffins or ravioli for us unless I want to go through the roasting process again.
2. In response to Shannin's comment regarding my going shopping this afternoon for supplies: It wasn't so much BRAVE as it was GOT SICK FOR TWO DAYS AND DIDN'T GET A CHANCE TO DO IT SOONER. However, I made it through the store without incident, and almost came away entirely unscathed. Then one of the free valets the store was providing to help allieviate traffic (which I didn't have to take advantage of) made me take a VERY slow route through the parking lot under the guise that it would be faster.
Now, for those of you at home who aren't bakers, or who don't know about gargantuan pie plates, let's take a mathematical tangent. Your standard pie plate is 9" in diameter and 1" deep. So you need an 11" round circle of pie crust to fit the plate (9+1+1). The area of a circle is pie times the radius squared, so 5.5^2 * 3.14. Let's estimate and say 36 * 3 = 108 square inches of pie crust. Gargantuan pie plate is 12" in diameter and 2" deep. So a 16" round circle of pie crust. 8^2 * 3.14, so 65*3 = 195 square inches of pie crust. Or approximately 90 MORE square inches of pie crust are needed.
You can imagine my pain, and the thinness of the crust, that first time out making pie. Once I realized that it's about twice as much crust, I just made a double crust recipie and carried on fine. It was always merely adequate, but I figured that if I just made a spectacular filling no one would ever notice whether or not the crust was flaky.
Today I had the task ahead of me to make 4 pie crusts - two for the gargantuan pie, and two for the standard apple pie (top and bottom). Your standard pie crust recipie makes 2 crusts, but I wasn't sure if you could just double the recipie and call it good. Pie crust toes a very fine line between dry flour that won't stick together and a big lump of play doh. Finding that exact spot is the secret to a good pie crust.
My DESIRE was to just double the recipie, as I've got enough on my plate tonight that I'd rather not have to go through the process twice. So I did what any good cook does in this situation and called my Mommy. Her concern was that with that much flour it would be very easy to make a big mess of things. In other words, "I don't want play doh for pie crust, girl." That was my concern, too. Damn, this wasn't going to be easy.
But I'm stubborn, and pressed for time, and decided to just plow ahead with it and make them all in one big bowl. And darn if it wasn't the easiest pie crust ever to make. It's chilling in the fridge right now awaiting filling, so I may come back and change my tune later, but I think I found that perfect balance this time around. With all that extra flour to work with I think it actually gave me a larger margin of error when adding the water, and thus the secret was discovered.
A couple of other notes from the kitchen front:
1. A pumpkin the size of Charlie Brown's head will provide EXACTLY enough pumpkin for a gargantuan pie. No soup or muffins or ravioli for us unless I want to go through the roasting process again.
2. In response to Shannin's comment regarding my going shopping this afternoon for supplies: It wasn't so much BRAVE as it was GOT SICK FOR TWO DAYS AND DIDN'T GET A CHANCE TO DO IT SOONER. However, I made it through the store without incident, and almost came away entirely unscathed. Then one of the free valets the store was providing to help allieviate traffic (which I didn't have to take advantage of) made me take a VERY slow route through the parking lot under the guise that it would be faster.
posted by Swankette at 6:28 PM
2 Comments:
My memories of shopping on Wednesday afternoon are long lines, screaming kids, no parking spaces, empty shelves. I'm just glad I never had to work in a grocery store.
Pie crusts have always been a challege for me. My dad and Martha make it look so easy (Martha swears a pie crust only takes two minutes). I can understand the rational behind not doubling the recipe. Baking is such a science and I am more of an artist in the kitchen.
I'm coming to the belief that baking is a science like hitting a baseball is a science. You have to understand it, but all the knowledge in the world won't make it look easy.
But also like hitting a baseball, I believe in the value of practice... and of picking your shots.
Hope you and TRP had a happy! Have I mentioned recently how much I enjoy your blog?
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