Perfect Pie Crust: 10 Steps

I used to have anxiety about making pie crust. Most likely because I had know idea what I was really doing, yet wanted big perfect results.

I learn best when someone shows me HOW TO and I do it with my own hands. My own fears were conquered after taking a pie baking class in Iowa at the American Gothic house with my sister-in-law, Lindsay.

So I would love to share with you

Phase II
Perfect Pie Crust: 10 Steps

Country Pie Crust Recipe and Phase I

Step 1 Prep

You will need large cutting board or counter top, rolling pin, 9 inch pie glass pie plate.

After the dough has chilled. Take one ball to start your pie crusts. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, making sure racks are on the bottom.

Step 2 Flour Everything

On a large flat counter top or cutting board, generously coat surface with flour. Do the same with your rolling pin.

Step 3 Dough Discs

Separate the ball of dough into two. Form each separated dough half into a small compact disc. It will make a better circle when you start rolling the crust out.



Step 4. Forming The Circle

Place the dough disc onto the floured surface and with your rolling pin roll north and south, and east and west, like a cross. Keep rolling outward around the circle to form a larger circle that is about 2 inches wider than your pie plate. I usually place the glass pie plate on top of the dough to judge.

Side note: When I first made pie crusts, I didn't flour enough nor did I roll my dough out thin enough. My dough barely hit the top edge of the pie plate once I tried putting it in. Notice how thin the dough is rolled out in this picture. These pictures our from my Iowa Pie Class Adventure with the famous pie lady, Beth Howard.

Step 5. Pick Up
My mom always taught me to fold the dough in half and then in half again. Pick up the folded crust and place in pie plate and gently unfold.  The dough should hang over the pie plate. Gently press down around the bottom so that the crust is fully lining the whole plate.

Or you could pick up this way...

Step 6: Repeat

Repeat Steps 3-5 to make the top crust, making about 3 slits in the center of the pie crust for ventilation. Fill pie with fruit filling and place top crust over the filled pie.

Step 7: Tuck In
Gently tuck the top crust OVER and UNDER the bottom layer of crust. (The dough will be thickest at this outer rim.) Pinch around to seal. (I take my right thumb to the edge of the dough and pinch with my left fore finger and thumb the dough around my right thumb.) Follow around the whole pie.

Step 8: Egg Wash
Brush pie with Egg Wash (whisk 1 egg with 2 Tbs. Milk) to make the crust shine.

Step 9: Foil
Take large strips of foil, almost covering the whole pie, and peel back so that the edges are covered, but the the top of the pie exposed, removing the foil edges during last 15 minutes of baking)

Step 10 Baking the Pie

Place pie in oven on a bottom rack. Bake pie for 60 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through the slits in the crust.

Let pie cool completely, about 2 hours, before serving.

Side notes:
- I usually turn my oven down to about 400 degrees about half way in or once the color is golden and bake an additional 10 minutes to ensure the dough isn't too doughy.

- Usually, I don't make my pie crust and pie on the same day. That's always a recipe for disaster for me, too much pressure. I usually freeze my dough and when the opportunity arises for a pie, the dough is already done so the pie making is less daunting and more enjoyable.

- The more I practice, and the more pies I make, the more comfortable and easy this process becomes. So don't get discouraged!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie


The world needs more pie :) Happy Baking!

Country Pie Crust

 

I want to share with you this recipe my mother-in-law gave me from her mother-in-law...you follow?

Back then, those women definitely knew a thing or two about baking pies, it was like doing a load of laundry to them or something of that second nature.


This recipe makes enough for TWO complete pies. (Two top and bottom layers).

Phase 1

Making the Dough

Step 1
Roll up your sleeves, take off your rings, and put on your apron! The dough is sticky, flour flies, and pie crusts need love. So get ready.

Step 2  Gather Ingredients

Country Pie Crust Recipe
4 Cups of Flour
1 1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 3/4 Cups of Shortening
1 Tbs. Sugar

1 egg
1 Tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 Cup very cold Water

Step 3 Mix Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk flour salt and sugar. With a spatula, mix in the shortening, just until it is well incorporated. There will be some lumps larger than others, but do not over mix. Should look somewhat like this....







Step 4 "The Well"

Make a well with the mixture. (I'm not sure why or what the scientific reasoning is behind the "well", but that's what my directions say, so I just follow) Add the egg, cider and water. Mix together until it starts to form into a ball.




Step 5 Ball It

Use your hands to gather up all the remaining flour and gently gather dough all together. Again, it doesn't take much, you don't want to over kneed the dough. Less is more.

Step 6: Chill or Freeze

Separate dough into 2 balls. Wrap in plastic saran wrap and chill in your refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. At this point you can:

a) After 30 minutes, proceed to make you pie.
b) Leave dough up to 2 days in the fridge, make the pie sometime in between.
c) Freeze the pie dough for later use. (This is usually what I do.)



To continue your pie, refer to Perfect Pie Crust:10 Steps 

Food Philosophy: Because the effort to make good food is a gift to those around me.

It’s happy memories, togetherness, the living part of life.

The 7th Year

On Monday, Andrew and I celebrated 7 years of marriage.

As our anniversary date drew closer, I wondered how we would celebrate it.

Years ago, my city girl upbringing would have assumed dinner at a fancy restaurant and a symphony to follow.

My parent's marriage showed me simply to be happy in each other's company alone on a date. I remember them coming home with sparkles in their eyes after many an anniversary date.

And time together and seven years of marriage, I simply wanted a date where we could just be together. And maybe if it worked out, do something we normally wouldn't have time for.

Little did I know, Andrew planned to surprise me with just that.....

He notified me not to make dinner. (first cause of joy, no cooking!) When I asked him what I should wear...."like a dress or mosquito repellent?"

He said, "Mosquito repellent."

I assumed we would go fishing or something of that nature.

No, he was way more romantic and creative, although I would have loved fishing just as much.

He took me to dinner and after dinner, we pulled up to a shed where one of these:

I (not sure why) have always LOVED four wheel riding!

Taped to the seat was a white envelope and a hand written note that started something like this,

"My Maria, In the Bible, 7 is the perfect number, it is the number of completion...." and went on to say more wonderful things that made my heart soar.

He then pulled out blankets, dessert and drinks and strapped them to the front and we rode out into the country.

We pulled up to a spot like this: 

We laid out the blankets and took in the evening.

 Sometimes quiet, or sometimes talking about our marriage, we sat together looking out into the sea of land and sky.

The country has its own music, rustling trees, grass blowing over, and the sweet sound of silence.

I thought about one of my favorite quotes on love, "Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but looking outward, together, in the same direction."  - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

So I got my dinner and symphony you could say, but a version that my heart appreciated so much more.

 Maybe because we have been married 7 years, maybe because I've grown to love the wide open spaces, or maybe because spending time alone with him on an adventure is my love language, but it turned out to be one of the best and romantic dates Andrew could have given me. (Second to surprise tickets to Phantom of the Opera in Atlanta after getting engaged ;)  



Truly, the more years we spend together, the closer our hearts learn to understand and love the other, the more I pray to God I can fulfill my promise to help get him to Heaven. THANK YOU GOD, thank you a million lifetimes for Andrew!

And There Was June

It was wonderful. It flew by, but we squeezed it for the all the best. Will my children look back on their childhood and love it as much I loved living it with them? I hope so.

I still go by mother's best advice and philosophy on raising young children: Don't fill up your days with too much activity, it is good for children to be "bored" so they may awaken their creativity.

I chose not to enroll in camp after camp or sign up for too much activity...We just enrolled in a simple and sweet style summer, all together.

Visiting Godparents in KC...they know all the fun places to go!

 TBall   He was the "Clean Up" Batter and made 2 home runs. I never knew that would be so incredibly fun to witness.

Eating Snow Cones...two blocks down and one block over they set up a portable shop. Highlight for sure.

Building Forts

Truck Rides During Harvest...thanks to Uncle Dom!

Sister Time + Cousin Time...Nicholas was almost crying he was laughing so hard watching crazy cousins John and Dominic go down the slide.

We got lots of visiting in with these two Locos ;)

After eating a sour blue raspberry snow cone, I didn't want to take a picture with blue teath...so i have a wierd smirk with blue lips.

They came in for a few days and we all went to go get massages and eat chocolate. It was grand. Love them.

Visiting Nanna and Papa...it might as well have been Disney Land to them.

They swam for hours every day...and Grace was never lacking in protective swimwear.

                            Backside Delight.

Nicholas played basketball every hour he wasn't in the pool and Paul was a hero for playing with him for hours.

Visiting the Zoo!

 Avila Celebrating 2 year Birthday

Thank you God for this time to be together, not without scrapes and falls, tantrums and timeouts, whining and wanting too much, but amidst the normal growing pains of these little ones, there were some deeply happy moments shared as a family, the small beginings of their childhood. May I continue to serve them with more patience, more tenderness, more selflessly.