"pie crust" news and stories

Pâte Sablée is another example of a tart dough used mainly for desserts, and it can also be used for cookies or as a component to French style cakes. Sablée translates as sand which is befitting its crumbly, cookie-like texture. Some recipes, though it's not traditional, include egg yolks, and a few recipes actually call for the yolks to be cooked which makes for a more tender crust.

Cooked yolks, 2oz (3-4)
softened butter 9.5 oz
salt 1/8 tsp
powdered sugar 5oz
uncooked egg yolks 2oz (3-4)
pastry ( or all purpose) flour 13 oz

Cream the butter, salt, and sugar well. Press the cooked yolks through a sieve and blend that into the mixture along with the uncooked yolks. Mix in the flour just until everything is gathered up into the dough. Refigerate for at least four hours.

Pie doughs are usually either flaky or mealy. Mealy dough is more compact and crisper, while flaky dough is, well, flakier. Both are tender. Mealy crusts are preferred for wet fillings, especially if you're going to fill the pie without partially baking the crust beforehand (blind baking). For mealy crusts, mix the fat longer so that the mixture looks like a course cornmeal before the liquid is added.

Flaky crusts can be used for wet fillings, but should be blind baked first. If you're doing a cream pie, bake the crust first then coat it with chocolate or cocoa butter to help prevent sogginess. You get flakiness by mixing the fat for less time, leaving it in bigger chunks. This creates layers of fat when the dough is rolled out, and a flaky texture in the finished product. Just keep in mind that this type of dough needs a little more hydration.

15oz pastry (or all purpose flour)
.75 oz sugar
1.5 tsp salt
11 oz butter, cold and cut into cubes/chunks
4.5 oz cold water

Mix the flour, sugar and salt to evenly distribute everything. Cut in the cold butter with a fork, your finger, a pastry knife or the paddle attachment on a mixer. mix until you get the desired size chunks of butter. Add the cold water just until incorporated. Rest the dough in the fridge for at least four hours to allow for proper hydration of the flour. Then you can roll out as usual.

Even though it hasn't cooled off that much in my corner of the world, it is technically fall and that means it's pie season. I like to make a wide variety of pies, and that doesn't just mean the filling. There's a whole world of pie and tart crusts out there for an almost endless list of possibilities this fall. Click through to the next few pages for everything you'll need to know about pie and tart crusts for great pies this fall.

With the holiday's just around the corner, we'll soon be digging into the wonderful world of pie. Do you have a perfect pie crust recipe, but when you put the filling in, the bottom seems to get too soggy? No problem. We've got several solutions for you!

You're all set to stick your pie crust in the oven to blind bake, and you realize that you don't have any pie weights. No need to fret, there are plenty of alternatives in your kitchen already.