sarahandryan.net

Perfection in an Imperfect World

February 26th, 2010 sarah

I love pie. I love to make pie. I love to eat pie. I love pie crust. Sometimes I make pie crust even when I’m not going to make a pie, because pie crust with cinnamon and sugar is good. Does that sound weird?

I started making pies when I was young. Specifically, my parents gave me a book about pie-making when I was fourteen. Maybe I was making pies before that, but I’m not sure. Anyway, this pie book was awesome. I still have it in a box somewhere, and pretty much every page is marked with love (flour and/or butter). From it, I learned to make shortcrust pastry (regular American pie crust), pate sucree (a smoother, sweeter pastry), puff pastry (talk about a black hole of time), pastry with nuts in it, and even pies with no bottom crust. Oh, pies. My old friends.

From the book, I learned many things. I learned how to not touch the pie crust while you’re making it, how to treat it oh-so-gently, so that it would not be tough. I learned to chill it in a disc shape so that when you rolled it out it would not crack. I learned to roll it up on the rolling pin then unroll it into the pan. I learned to chill the dough for at least an hour before using it.

I learned all these things, but never really knew why they were important. So, over time, I’ve grown lazy about certain things. Like chilling the dough. Simply put, I don’t. Chill the dough, I mean. And the pie crust usually turns out fine. Except for one thing.

Lately, it shrinks as it cooks, which is a problem for pies with pre-baked crusts, like one of my favs, chocolate cream. I make a nice fluted edge and it shrinks and then it’s un-fluted. And finally, today, I decided I would google this problem. Turns out it’s related to the fact that I don’t chill the dough, and because to make up for the fact that I don’t chill the dough, I’d taken to adding one more tablespoon of water than is strictly necessary, to make it more pliable. Did you know that a tender, flaky, non-shrunk pie crust is dependent on the amount of gluten that forms? As long as you keep gluten from forming (by using very cold ingredients, adequately combining the fat and flour to prevent the flour from absorbing water, only using the barest amount of water, and chilling the dough before you roll it out), the pie crust stays tender, flaky, and the correct size.

Where have you been all my life, Science of Pie-Making?

“The thing is… a proper pie crust isn’t so much a recipe as it’s a spiritual quest for perfection in an imperfect world.”