Subscribe to thisRose's Favorite Flaky & Tender Pie Crust
INGREDIENTS |
MEASUREMENTS |
WEIGHT |
|
|---|---|---|---|
cold |
volume |
ounces |
grams |
frozen unsalted butter, 1/2 inch cubes |
8 tablespoons |
4 ounces |
113 grams |
bleached all purpose flour, preferably Wondra |
1-1/3 cups, sifted into the cup |
6.5 ounces |
184 grams |
sea salt |
1/8 teaspoon |
- |
- |
baking powder (preferably Rumford or another non-aluminum variety) |
1/8 teaspoon |
- |
- |
cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces and chilled |
1-3 ounce package |
3 ounces |
85 grams |
heavy cream |
2 tablespoons |
- |
- |
cider vinegar |
2 teaspoons |
- |
- |
Food Processor Method
1) Process flour, salt, and baking powder to blend.
2) Add cream cheese and process until coarse.
3) Add butter cubes and pulse until peanut size.
4) Add cream and vinegar and pulse until butter is the size of small peas.
5) Scrape dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Use latex gloves or cover hands with plastic bags and press dough until it holds together in one smooth flat disc.
6) Wrap, and refrigerate 45 minutes before rolling.
Note: Baking powder containing aluminum has a bitter flavor. Most health food stores and many supermarkets carry the calcium variety.You can eliminate the baking powder and double the salt but the crust will be less tender.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/blog/mt-tb.cgi/16
Comments
I found your Rose's Pie Plate in a shop today and bought it! I won't be able to use it for a couple of weeks because of other projects in the works but when I do, would it still be best to bake the crust on the oven floor for the first 20 minutes or will this pie plate eliminate the need for that? By the way, it's a beautiful pie plate.
Elizabeth H
Posted by: Elizabeth | June 4, 2006 8:56 PM #
thank you elizabeth! yes--do bake on the floor of the oven for the first 20 min. i think you'll be very happy with this technique.
Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | June 4, 2006 9:27 PM #
Hi Rose,
I made a pie crust from your Basic Pastry recipe in the PIe and Pastry Bible. I did not cook the pie on the bottom of the oven, but I cooked it on the lowest rack. I noticed after 10 minutes that the edges were getting melty. The pie had just come from being in the freezer for 1 hour and the edges had a raised fluting. I let the dough rest overnight in the fridge before rolling out. Just wondering what I did wrong.
Thanks, Monica
Posted by: monica | August 1, 2006 5:46 AM #
baking low in the oven is the best way to get a crisper bottom crust but unfortunately the heat eminating from the bottom will soften the border before it has a chance to set. for this reason i use a less raised border such as the checkerboard which fares well even low in the oven.
other solutions are:
the pie plate i designed that protects the scalloped border
putting the foil ring on right at the beginning will help
Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | August 2, 2006 8:21 AM #
Hello Rose,
I have two questions:
1)Is there a substitute for the sea salt for this pie crust (the cream cheese crust is my favorate too, it's wonderful with your pecan pie)?
2)Will you be returning to PBS ch. 13 soon? I was soooo excited when I saw you on television! I really miss your show.
PS I have all of your books but after buying 'The Cake Bible', in 1997 I went to NYRS in 1998 and have my cert. in Pastry Arts. I would just like to add a hardy thank you and a great big hug for changing the course of my life.
Much love,
Constance
Posted by: Constance | August 16, 2006 11:45 AM #
thank you for your beautiful inspiring note. it means a lot to me.
re the sea salt, the only reason i specify it is i don't want to add iodized salt, especially to a pie crust where you could really taste it. but i'll bet anything that no one could ever detect the difference in a pie crust between sea salt and uniodized table salt!
love back!and i hope you are having the rewarding career you deserve.
Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | August 20, 2006 5:57 PM #
Hi Rose,
Constance again, I would like to know if your show, "Baking Magic", will be returning to PBS ch. 13, if so, when will the show air?
Every time I make a cake or pie from your books the people go crazy.
The first time I made the egg white butter cream was without the chocolate. When I tell you I almost screamed soo loud! I called my friend and told her "I found it, I found it!!!!" We have been looking for "real buttercream" for years.
When you go to bakeries you get something they call "buttercream" and after it's gone, you still have some kind of greasy film in your mouth. But Rose I must say THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! From everyone I know, they love your buttercreams and cakes!!!
Once again much Luv,
Constance
Posted by: Constance | August 30, 2006 2:07 PM #
constance--this is wonderful and for now you'll have to content yourself with the written recipe as pbs is "independent" which means each station can air when it choses. you could call and brow beat your local pbs station--if enough people showed interest it could work. they are SUPPOSED to be responsive to their audience!
with all the details in the recipes plus this blog you won't go wrong!
Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | August 30, 2006 2:28 PM #
I tried the pie crust, and it came out very nice. However, after putting the filling in and leaving it in the fridge for a few hours, the crust is no longer flaky and crisp. It had gotten gummy! What did I do wrong? What can I do to avoid that next time?
Posted by: Shuang | August 28, 2007 4:10 AM #
Shuang - pie crust will absorb moisture from the fridge. Best to eat your pie quickly.
Posted by: Patrincia | August 28, 2007 7:18 PM #
Every recipe I see for a flaky pie crust says to use ice water. I found " an easy foolproof method" for a pie crust using HOT WATER! If all recipes specify ICE water, how does using HOT water work?
Posted by: blanche james | September 11, 2007 8:16 PM #
Blanche,
Your post intrigued me because I had never heard of hot water pie crust. I looked up and read through a recipe. I think this would fall under a separate type of pastry other than traditional pie crust--like fillo, strudel, and Pâte à Choux are other categories.
I am not well enough versed in pastry taxonomy, but perhaps someone knows a name for this genre. This is the type of pastry where the fat is added in liquid form. I know my great-grandmother used to make pie crusts using oil. My only experience with this type of pastry is cooking Indian foods--samosa pastry uses a similar technique.
From the reviews I read, most people praise its tenderness. This would make sense because tenderness in regular pie dough results, in part, from the absorption of some of the fat in the flour to keep it from forming gluten with water. Reviewers also claim that it is flaky; not having tried this recipe, I can't say for sure, but I can't imagine that it could be as flaky as a regular crust made with big streaks of butter.
I know that the oil based pastries I mentioned do have some flakiness, but it doesn't seem to be on the same level as traditional pie crust. I'm not sure I understand exactly how oil based pastries become flaky. I assume the mechanism must be similar to how pie crust becomes flaky (layers of fat). Since there aren't any large pieces of fat or visible layers, this must happen on a very small scale--perhaps, resulting in the equally reduced flakiness.
Posted by: Matthew | September 11, 2007 10:56 PM #
When you freeze an unbaked pie crust, rolled, do you thaw it first in the refrigerator before blind-baking it? And for recipes not calling blind-baking, do you thaw the frozen crust first before filling it?
Posted by: Hector | October 23, 2007 12:11 PM #
I would thaw the rolled crust in the fridge first, otherwise it will be too firm to unroll.
Posted by: Patrincia | October 24, 2007 6:05 PM #
Oh wait a minute... by "rolled", do you mean rolled-out flat???
Posted by: Patrincia | October 24, 2007 6:06 PM #
I made this pie crust twice and both times my crust came out hard. The rest of the pie was fine, it was just the crust (the rim of the pie). So I do not understand why it wasn't the whole crust. As it started to get brown, I used a pie shield so it wouldn't over-brown, and I followed the directions exactly as stated. Please tell me why I could of had a hard rim!! The first time I made it I didn't brush with milk and sugar but the second time I did but the results were the same both times!! I am a little confused to what happened.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 18, 2008 9:54 PM #
I forgot to leave my name about the blog with the hard rim. Please help if you can.
Posted by: Brenda | April 18, 2008 10:00 PM #