Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Why do people buy Pie Crusts?

No, really, Why?  It's so dead simple!

Over this weekend on Saturday I had a going away dinner for a good friend.   We had the Roast and when all was said and done we had to make Cornish Pasties out of some of the leftovers.  It is a good way to get rid of some of the extras and we had a lot of them.   After having one last night, those Cornish Pasties were a good idea on their own.

Now that I had tried it and found out how easy it was to do, I'll be making more Pies.  Cherry at first, since they are my favorite, and I have a Key Lime recipe somewhere on a post card I had been carrying around with me since the early 1980s.

The recipe for the most part is a simple ratio - 1 to 2 to 4. 
1/2 cup water
1 cup shortening (Butter, Lard, what ever you have on hand)
2 cups Flour

Plus

1 Teaspoon of Salt.

  1. Mix Flour and Salt.
  2. Cut in Shortening until you get crumbles
  3. Stir in water until you get a ball.
  4. Chill for 4 hours or until it is the right consistency.

Should take you about 10 minutes, 15 if your get distracted.

Mind you, when I mix things, I do it in a stand mixer that has 350W stamped on the side, but there were Farmer's Wives who did this with a wooden spoon for centuries.  I'm just lazy and if you ever watched me bake, I swear by using the mixer to pump in extra air to give extra lift in my pastries...

That's it.  It made something that reminded me of Play Doh.  We shaped it, cut it into quarters, put the Cornish Pastie filling in the middle and baked until golden.

The result was one of the most amazing pie crusts I had ever had.  The pastry was light and fluffy.  I used a vegetable shortening that was organic and therefore "fancy" and that may have been part of it.   I didn't have any of my butter on hand but it is easy enough to use that especially since home churned butter can be softer in texture than store bought.

Since I have been told that my postings are the favorite of some of my local readers, I'll let you know how it went when I make the pie.  I have two cans of Cherry Filling in the cupboard, so it looks like Cherry Pies will be more common in the future.  When I make it though, I will make it with butter instead of shortening.  Despite the fact that the Crust was amazingly light, the extra sweetness from the butter will go well with a fruit filling.

Oh great, and my trying to fight off the pounds without hitting the weights at the gym will only work until I put that first fork full in my mouth!

1 comment:

  1. AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
    You got me AGAIN!

    ReplyDelete