Do you have a favorite pie crust?
Apr 01, 2006 | From the kitchen of Rose
Yes, the Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust on page 29 of The Pie and Pastry Bible. I now make it with heavy cream replacing the water and it is more tender and flavorful.
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Lauren
10/14/2008 07:47 AM
Hi Rose,
I'm just curious, what are your thoughts on pate sablee? I noticed you haven't included it in the PPB...
Please, everyone feel free to comment :)
Thank you!
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
12/19/2007 08:03 AM
you'll should click on the above link--it's totally delightful and fascinating. thanks veronica! (i've posted more comments/information on your blog.)
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veron
12/19/2007 07:16 AM
I just finished my comparative testing of pie crusts:
http://kitchenmusings.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/12/the-pie-crust-e.html
Yours is my favorite!
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Hector
12/03/2007 03:53 PM
Love your blogsite! and hope you like Rose's ceramic bakeware.
For Thanksgiving, I could not resist and ordered a beautiful ceramic pie plate from a well known vendor, shaped like a pumpkin. However my pie crust turned out soggy, not flaky. I blame this on the design of the bottom surface of the pie plate, the part touching the hot oven floor (I bake pies directly on the oven floor, as Rose suggests).
The bottom was glazed, and also had some 'leg pegs' resembling a dinner plate. Therefore not touching directly the heat source.
I posted about this one of my Thanksgiving many-many entries.
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veron
12/03/2007 03:23 PM
That's perfect Hector! And it's on it's way (just ordered it from Amazon).
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Hector
12/03/2007 03:15 PM
http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/RoseCremeBrulee.html
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Hector
12/03/2007 03:14 PM
Veron, whenever I want to make the mini version, I use this!
ttp://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/RoseCremeBrulee.html
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veron
12/03/2007 03:01 PM
Thanks for the tips and I'm definitely buying that pastry cloth. Oh I wish you had the pie plates in mini too. The hubby wants a third of the sugar in his apple pie while I want the full-sugar version. After using your pie plate , I don't think I will like the mini norpro ones I ordered.
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Matthew
12/03/2007 02:03 PM
Thanks for that tip Rose. That is one chore about pie making that I always hate.
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
12/03/2007 12:54 PM
you can store the cloth and sleeve in a sipseal freezer weight bag in the freezer and avoid washing it for months--maybe years!
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Hector
12/03/2007 12:48 PM
re: using a pastry cloth and the flaky cream cheese crust. The pastry cloth works really well, also together with the sleeve. But, I've been getting lazy lately and worried myself washing the pastry cloth, sleeve, and rolling pin.
What I do now is roll the dough between sheets of plastic wrap, so I practically have to wash nothing. I haven't ruled out all the variables yet, I am testing if the crust looses flakiness with this method.
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
12/03/2007 10:44 AM
absolutely yes! and be sure to replace the water with heavy cream for the best texture and flavor! i also love using a pastry cloth and sleeve so the dough never sticks.
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veron
12/03/2007 10:19 AM
Just received your pie plate and used it immediately. luv luv it! I have a question with your flaky cream cheese crust. Can I increase the ingredients proportionally? I'm still not very good rolling things out and I usually lose some of the dough when I divide it that I almost do not have enough for a double pie crust.
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
10/31/2007 06:37 PM
alberto caro! how wonderful to hear from you. actually i was worried by the long silence and thought of you when in tuscany and the wonderful trip you arranged for us bakers in switzerland several years ago.
i'm so glad you are ok now and i think we should try to plan another reunion. last time you came to ny i was too sick to come out for dinner!
we're about to start photography for the new book and it's likely to be chez angelica which would be a perfect location except for the commute. but i'm pushing for it as i never get to spend time with her and of course, with her baking skills, she could be a great assistant to the food stylist!
love,
rose
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Albert Uster
10/26/2007 12:09 PM
Hello Rose, Have a wonderful vacation in the Tuscany - next time let me know and I join you (if your husband lets you) I had a cracy year with my health, I never had to worry about, but it c ought up with me. I am OK now and look forward to many new experiences in my old age. Love to you and your website!
Albert
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Hector
10/25/2007 12:32 AM
To my dear bloggers from the far East. Do you have a recipe for Moon Cake? I've just a recipe on my local newspaper and it does not look that difficult. What is the pastry most similar to in the PPB?
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
03/19/2007 05:56 PM
try baking the pie directly on the floor of the oven if possible or on a preheated baking stone for the first 20 minutes so that it gets a chance to crisp up. you could also try prebaking it and brushing it with egg white to keep the soft filling from making it soggy.
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ida scott
03/19/2007 05:44 PM
I buy pie crust at the store to do my sweet potato pie,but my crust get soft by the end of the day. Can you help me.
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
05/31/2006 08:36 AM
albert!!! i'm in the middle of testing "the tom boy"--the signature cake of two adorable ladies who own miette bakery in s.f. waiting for the chocolate and water mixture to cool and checked the blog to find your delightful and informative comment.thanks for sharing this.
life sure has changed since this blog!i 'm beginning to see that people's ability to connect in this way really can make the world a better place on so many levels.
and i'm so glad you've tapped into the breadbasketcase blog--i knew you would get a real kick out of it in the same way i do!
love always,
rose
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albert uster
05/30/2006 11:48 PM
Hello rose, I am delighted with the comments of breadbasketcase (Marie Wolf) on the receipes she baked from your book. I wanted to comment on the story her friend Susan made about Ho Chi Minh.He was a Pastry Chef under August Escoffier at the Ritz in Paris which of course he founded together with his Partner Ceasar Ritz the mountain man from Zermatt-Switzerland.
Ho Chi Minh at that time joined the Communist Party in Paris so he had a chance to oppose the French Policies on the Colony of Vietnam. The rest of course is World History. We Chefs are constantly connected to the History of mankind!!
Keep up the good work Rose, I love to read your newsletter and of course the dialog with readers!! Love you Albert
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
05/20/2006 03:00 PM
i don't use the large EH pans--only the tiny ones--bc they are much too big for my recipes, i.e. deep dish--so of course they would bake differently. that's why i designed my own ceramic pie plate which i find takes the same amount of baking time as metal pans i had used previously.
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Marva Culver
05/20/2006 02:29 PM
Dear Rose, Do you adjust your baking temps for a pie shell, custard pie, a 2-crust fruit pie or a FROZEN 2-crust pie when using an Emile Henry pie plate?
In a Pyrex plate, I bake on the lowest shelf setting of a preheated oven and preheated cookie sheet. I start out at 425 deg. for about 10 minutes or until the crusts looks like it has begun to dry out. Then, I move the pie to the center shelfand reduce the temp to 350 deg. and bake another 20-30 minutes depending on the filling. This usually gives good results. In general, I haven't have much luck with decorative, ceramic pie plates. Even baking close to the floor of the oven, the crusts are almost always doughy. I don't use non-stick finish utensils because I have a bird.
In my new EH pan (I'm so proud of it!), everything seems to take longer. I baked my first cherry pie close to 25 minutes at 425 deg. and almost 45 minutes at 350 deg.(checking it about every 4 minutes)without moving it to the center of the oven. The color of the finished crust is evenly golden, flaky, and beautiful. But, it took FOREVER. I regret that I started my questions too quickly. Pie in an EH dish cools slower, too! I can't yet tell you how the bottom crust turned out.
After the fact, I looked on the EH website and found that they suggest baking a fruit pie at 380 deg for 30 minutes with no varying of temp or oven position mentioned. That doesn't sound right to me.
If the longer baking time is the trade off for the beautiful pie, I guess that's okay. But, from a planning standpoint, I would certainly appreciate some guidelines. It would help cut down the stress of constant checking when I've got other things going at the same time, too.
Also, since this dish takes so much longer, how would I judge timing if I needed to bake a fruit pie in an EH plate that came right out of the freezer? Can you offer some insight?
Many thanks, Marva
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
04/22/2006 10:15 PM
yes renee- substitute equal volume of cream! and yes, concentrate the liquid more but watch it very carefully as it goes very fast toward the end and you don't want it to burn or get so thick you can't get it to come out of the container!
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Renee Gleason
04/22/2006 10:08 PM
I recently made your cream cheese pie crust and it was terrific! Next time I will try substituting the heavy cream for the ice water like you suggested. Do I substitute Tbl for Tbl?
Also, I made your Apple Crumb Pie with the cream cheese crust. I loved the flavor of it, especially warm, but I did have some liquid pooling at the bottom of the pie. What do I attribute this to? Not reducing the macerating liquid enough? Any hints on how to avoid that the next time? Thank you so much!
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
04/22/2006 11:47 AM
the short answer (until i post the entire recipe after the launch of the harvest kind flour in may!) is that adding 1/4 cup oil (to the recipe which uses 1 pound flour)before mixing the dough, will soften the crumb and still give you a slighly crisp but not hard crust.
i find that 3 ounces makes the size hamburger bun i like--just shape it into a ball and flatten it after it has risen for about 20 minutes.
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Elizabeth Hayes Smith
04/18/2006 11:16 PM
Dear Mrs. Beranbaum,
I must say the Basic White Sandwich and Cracked Wheat Sandwich breads in your Bread Bible have changed my husband's mind about homemade bread. He's a confirmed "WonderBread" eater, and used to turn his nose up at my hard, crusty, and often unappetizing loaves. Even particularly good homemade loaves of mine he was not interested in.
In the last year or so I've been trying to make all the bread that my family eats. Now that I use your recipes my husband loves homemade bread. I really must say that your White Sandwich bread is by far the best white bread that I've ever tasted, homemade or from a bakery.
My husband often likes hotdogs and hamburgers, so I was intrigued by your suggestion that the Basic White Sandwhich dough makes the best hotdog and hamburger rolls.
I did attempt it once, and the shaping went fine (for hotdog rolls) but I baked them too long, and they got hard and crunchy (still good, though!)
Do you have any recommendations on hotdog or hamburger roll shaping? How about baking times and method?
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Art
04/18/2006 12:06 PM
Thank you very much. I will try your great suggestion.
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
04/17/2006 07:18 PM
here's an idea (i sometimes do this). bake decorative cutouts for the top crust on a cookie sheet and apply them after the pie cools. that way you have your crisp pie crust on top even with a juicy moist filling!
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Art
04/17/2006 12:33 AM
Yes, the edge is crisp, the top is soft I guess because of steam from the filling. When I make a crostata with the same crust, the crust is crisp because there is such a large hole in the top for venting. If you ever come up with a way to vent the top of a traditional two crust pie so that the steam from the filling doesn't soften the top crust, PLEASE LET ME KNOW :) Thank you.
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
04/15/2006 09:41 PM
it sounds like you are in a very humid environment otherwise there's no way at least the edge of the crust would not be crisp. the filling can soften the rest. the cream cheese crust is not as crisp as the all butter crust. you might try that one.
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Art Pira
04/10/2006 08:55 PM
Hi Rose. I am having trouble with your pie crust recipes. I must be doing something wrong. They are tender and flaky (I can see the layers in the finshed, baked product), but the crust is very soft and not crispy. It has been baked enough because it is golden. Please help.
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
04/08/2006 10:10 PM
thanks joe! pie season happening soon. i just LOVE spring. it means the farmers'markets will open soon, new garlic, endless fruit. pie time!
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Rose Levy Beranbaum
04/08/2006 10:09 PM
ken,do what i do in the summer in nj with no air conditioning: freeze the flour and butter cubes the night before. make the pie crust first thing in the morning. let it rest 45 min. in frig and then roll out on a cold surface. either refrigerate a piece of marble of put ice cubes in a plastic bag and chill the counter. work fast. it works! and do try replacing the water with cold heavy cream. heavenly!
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Joe Kelly
04/05/2006 01:08 PM
your pie crust recipe using sour cream is terrific. I take the scraps, stack and chill them, roll it out and get great puff pastry.
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joe kelly
04/05/2006 01:06 PM
your piecrust recipe made w/ sour cream is my favorite--easy, and flaky. I take the scraps, chill, roll out and get almost puff pastry.
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Ken
04/04/2006 05:47 PM
The cream cheese pie crust in your book is fantastic! The only problem is that I moved from Northern California to Houston and the weather is getting hot. Any suggestions in how to bake in hot weather?
Thank you
Ken
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vatel
04/02/2006 03:59 PM
Yes indeed Cornflakeyummycrustypiecrust..
even it's evil...;-(
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