Monday, July 02, 2012

p i e.

p i e by kristin~mainemomma
p i e, a photo by kristin~mainemomma on Flickr.
last year was my "summer of pie".
blueberry
peach
apple
toasted coconut cream
diane's chocolate cream pie (omg.)
this summer i have made zero pies. ack!
my friend laura just asked for my crust recipe. i clearly remember i never made pies because i thought real pies deserved homemade crust and crust was "hard" and "fussy" (words i convinced myself were true) and so i did not bake pies. then we got the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and my life forever changed. sounds dramatic doesn't it? but i swear by that book. it has yet to let me down. truly. i like (love) cookbooks, but only ATK recipes have been fool proof. me being the fool. :) so trust me, if you love pie, or even deeply LIKE pie, but are afraid of crust, do not fear. make this recipe.

ATK Double Crust Pie Dough

2 1/2 C all purpose flour
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
8 TBS vegetable shortening cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled
12 TBS (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 pieces and chilled
6 to 8 TBS ice water

freeze butter in stick form til very firm.
whisk together the flour sugar and salt in a large bowl.
add chilled shortening and press into the flour mixture using a fork.
grate the frozen butter on a large box grater into the flour mixture.
cut the mixture together using 2 butter knives, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
sprinkle 6 TBS of the ice water over the mixture. stir with a rubber spatula until the dough sticks together. if the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 TBS at a time, until it does.
divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten into a 4 inch disk, wrap the discs tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temp before rolling it out.
flour your surface and roll.

then fill with some summer berries or peaches (yum) and eat up! i have to thank laura for lighting the pie fire under my lazy butt today. now i need me some fruit.

3 comments:

Katie said...

Now you have me wanting to bake a pie, specially the chocolate pie. ;) Love ATK recipes.

Vanessa/NessieNoodle said...

This is very timely. Did you know it's pie week on NPR? They are talking about pies all week long on morning addition. http://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/

xo

Cathy said...

Nessie, i was just going to tell her the same thing. pie is always good!