Thank God it's raining. I just needed to get that out of the way. I love spring, but the pine pollen has been fierce. One day is all it takes to coat everything with a lime-yellowish, gritty mantle.My mother made the lightest, flakiest pie crusts I have ever put in my mouth. I'm reminded of this as I transcribe her 1960's diaries. She frequently rolls out a pie crust, either for the freezer or for a pie to have handy for drop-in company. We had a bunch of fruit trees and a large grape arbor, and Mom could step out the back door for many of the ingredients she needed for desserts and jellies. I've never tasted a better apple pie than hers, but she was known for her pecan pies - my favorite as a child.
My mother, equipped with a constantly whispering inferiority complex, was afraid that her baked goods wouldn't be fit to eat, but I never heard any complaints. Our family friend, William Worsley, came from a North Carolina family that owned a huge peanut farm. It had been in his family for generations, and it was what the Kennedys would call a compound, with several Worsleys building their homes on the property. William's older spinster sister lived in the original "Big House" on the old farm. Each year the family would host two pig-pickin's, one in the spring and another in the fall. They hosted hundreds of people, and my parents were among the privileged few who were invited to stay on the property. The price of admission was two of my mother's pecan pies.
Crusts are tricky things for a novice baker like me. I remember encountering a problem crust a few years back, and the thought of it has given me baker's block when it comes to attempting a homemade pie crust. A few years back a friend made a pie crust that still haunts my memories.
Several friends and I decided it would be fun to do communal lunches a long time ago. One friend brought a homemade peach pie. It was breathtakingly beautiful, at least to a pie-lover like me. I couldn't wait to get my mitts on it. The edges of the crust were carefully fluted, and golden brown. The baker had arduously created a twisted lattice top crust, and the peaches peeked promisingly from beneath. The pie looked like a work of art, but it should have remained behind glass.
I knew I was in trouble when the pretty latticework would not yield to my fork. At all. A final, desperate effort broke through, and sent a shard of crust flying at least a dozen feet into some shrubbery. Luckily we were eating outside; no one noticed and no retrieval was necessary. The hand of God sent that projectile into some concealing bushes instead of someone's eye, as far as I'm concerned.For me, a good crust makes or breaks a good pie. I've heard that a wise baker knows just when to stop working the dough, lest it turn deadly. My impression is that it takes a keen eye, a deft hand, and the experience to know when the dough "feels" right to the fingers. I tell myself that my limited counter space prevents me from rolling out my own pie crust, but I know it's simply fear of creating cement out of flour and shortening.
That's why I still use the refrigerated crusts that come rolled up in a plastic sleeve. In my opinion, they are better than the frozen crusts in an aluminum tin, but one day I hope to master the skill of making my own pie crusts. If any of you have any tips or recipes, feel free to share your ideas. You can send me an e-mail if you like.
Anyway, I'm going to share a recipe that I found on allrecipes. I tweaked it a bit with extra flour, but I love this pie because it is easy-as-pie (whatever in the hell that means), and quick to throw together. It's never failed. I've also discovered that you can line the crust with a layer of fresh blueberries or sliced strawberries if you have them on hand before you pour in the filling. If you use strawberries, add a little more flour to the pie filling (it prevents "weeping"). This is a tasty slice of old-fashioned goodness.
Buttermilk Pie
½ cup butter, softened
1-½ cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
ground nutmeg
1 single-layer unbaked pie crust
Cream the butter and sugar. Add flour and mix well. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and buttermilk. The mixture will look curdled; don't get your panties in a wad. Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle with nutmeg to taste. Wrap aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent over-browning. Bake @ 350° for one hour. Cool on rack. Store in refrigerator.
p.s. The image of the buttermilk pie at the top is from the Stubb's BBQ site. They will happily send you a frozen buttermilk pie for only $35.99 if you'd rather not make your own. I'm not sure if that includes shipping.
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12 comments:
Did you know that Chess pie in Texas is called Buttermilk Pie?
I was beginning to feel extremely inferior as a baker until you also mentioned you used up the rolled pie crust. ME TOO!! Phew... I made a chicken pot pie today and it was deee-lisshhh. I'd send ya some if I could. I'm going to try the buttermilk pie tomorrow, perfect for a Sunday. Take CAre.
Pastries are one of my weaknesses, and good pie is first among them. Flaky crust is a must! I concur that in lieu of your own the refrigerated pie crusts, rolled up, are a fair substitute.
When I make my own I learned to roll the dough between two sheets of waxed paper. It rolls fairly easily, doesn't gum up the roller, and you don't need to add a bunch more flour. I peel off the one sheet of waxed paper and place the crust in the pie pan and then remove the other sheet.
$36 for a pie? You have got to be kidding me. You should have So send you Mom's Chess Pie recipe and you can compare. I love me some Chess Pie.
I wish you lived down the street darlin' so I could bring you over my Mothers pecan pie! She makes them all the time.
When I was a kid she would make pie crusts for us to layer between dew berries (or blackberries depending on your region). I don't remember what kind of milk we poured over it....maybe half and half.
We had a fig tree in the backyard that she made fig perserves with. I hated that thing....because it was somehow a sin if we did not "put them up" faster than they fell. "Please, can't we just let some rot?"....but NO...what would God say about that???
I told her I didn't think God gave a damn about figs. She popped me on the back of the leg for cussing....geeze I was in my 20's!
Pie in the Sky.
Ok, the pie's made, it's chilling, now when do we eat. MMMMmmmmMMMMMM!
I also suffer from the pie crust curse. But I can make one hell of a cobbler.
I want me some chess, pecan and buttermilk pie please. Someone deliver it to Kansas, Kentucky. I'll wait.
Hey Bill, I cannot make pie crust either, that is until I found this really cool recipe in a community cookbook, and it is delicious!
Fool Proof Pie crust
5 cups flour
2 1/2 cups crisco, or 1 pound of lard
1 egg
2 teaspoons of vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt(optional)
Mix egg and vinegar in a measuring cup and fill with cold water to make one cup. Stir with fork.
Mix flour salt and crisco together(I use a dough blender)
Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix completely( I use my hands for this part)
Dough is very soft, can be rolled and re-rolled. Refrigerated or frozen, makes 2 double crusts and 1 shell.
My recipe requires a food processor.
1 1/2 cups flour
1 stick butter FROZEN - important!
1/4 cup ICE water - important!
1/2 teasp salt (optional)
Cut the butter into about 8 pieces.
Pulse butter and flour in the food processor until it's coarsely blended. It should be like big-grained corn meal. I use the sharp blade. You're not blending, just mixing.
Drizzle in the ice water JUST UNTIL IT'S BARELY BLENDED. You might not need all the water. Don't let the dough form a solid ball and roll around in there.
By hand: lightly make the dough into a ball, and lightly roll it out.
The trick to a good pie crust is to have tiny nuggets of fat (butter or lard) left in the mix when you roll it out. That's what makes it flaky. Having the butter frozen and the water ice cold keeps the butter bits from blending into the dough.
But I still usually use frozen crusts 'cause I'm a lazy girl.
Sounds like you'll be crusty in no time.
My pie crust this weekend turned out a heckofa lot better than the first one I tried. I think I very well may be getting better with experience! :)
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