Conquering Fear of Pie Crust
Ever since I’ve known Jill, she’s always talked about her fear of pie crusts, to which I’ve regularly responded with “it’s so easy!� In fact, our very first conversation at the IDC onsite/offsite many years ago could have gone along these lines:
Jill: “Would you like some candy?�
Schelley: “Oooh, yes. I like the pretty cellophane bag that you've brought the candy in�.
Jill: “Better than these stale cookies they're feeding us.�
Schelley: “I could do much better. I have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe; I really enjoy baking.�
Jill: “Really? You know, pie crust scares me.�
Schelley: “Oh, it’s so easy! I can teach you.�
So I may be slightly exaggerating the flow of that exact conversation, but I know that those very words were said over the span of many, many conversations.
Finally, I made good on my promise, and on Sunday, much to Jill’s delight, we made pies, cherry pies, per Jamie’s request.
The pie making was tons of fun. Making pie isn’t difficult – but for some reason, pie crust has developed a nasty reputation. I think it’s bad recipes, or people who just freak out at the amount of fat (butter, lard, shortening, etc.) required and try to do short cuts, or overmix, or lose patience, or any other number of excuses.
We did a little experimentation, a la Cooks Illustrated. Jill didn’t have enough flour for two pies, but did have a package of biscuit flour (it was very white, and I suspect refined differently than flour normally used for baking). The dough using regular flour (King Arthur, self-rising or whatever it’s called) was perfect, easy to work with, with the right balance of butter and salt; the dough using the special biscuit flour was puffy, tasted slightly sour, like a biscuit, and difficult to work with, as in structurally, it fell apart at the slightest touch. Each baked differently: the regular pie (or what we referred to as “jill’s pie�) was beautifully golden brown; the pie with biscuit flour (“my pie�), darkened too much. According to expert pie eater Jamie, my pie tasted as expected: like biscuits wrapped around cherry pie filling. Not bad, but just not optimal.
Jill's pie was perfect. She brought it for dessert to Lee Dicks’ house (which was an amazing dinner all on its own), and paired with Lee Dicks’ pluot ice cream, was fabulous. The cherries were completely intact, juicy and plump in their cooked goodness and the crust was flaky and delicious.
I’m proud to say that Jill is no longer afraid of pie crust. This is the second person I’ve made pies with since moving to Seattle (Tony was the first, over Memorial Day weekend). I would like to say that my pie mentoring is done, but I suspect that there will be others.