A Pie Crust That Can Fly

I'm just going to give it to you straight. The best pie maker in Wilmington is not a southerner. Yes, I know it is hard to accept, but Carolyn Atkinson is a welcome transplant at Flying Pi Kitchen on the corner of 4th and Chestnut and you'll stop complaining once you taste her pie of the day.

Number two in the "from scratch wisdom with Carolyn Atkinson" series: the pie crust that you can't seem to get enough of.

The recipe for a good crust is never particularly complicated. You need a ratio of flour to fat to liquid that lets the water evaporate while baking, leaving the buttery flour crisp and rich. And you need to do it fairly quickly, keeping everything cold and not letting the gluten form.

And yet there are a million astuces, tricks and pieces of advice from bloggers and great aunt elmas. I've read articles discussing the percentage of fat in French vs. American butter (which is apparently government regulated) and the merits of a food processor vs hand mixed, but the simple truth seems to be that each person is going to have a different pie crust. You just need to develop your own style with as much wisdom input as you can get.

I realize I am repeating myself, but a recipe won't teach you to cook. Cooking with someone who knows how to cook will teach you to cook. And yet I have a blog, so here's my best shot at transcribing that experience.

Ingredients for 2 crusts
(or one top and one bottom)
1c butter
3c flour
tsp sugar (if sweet crust)
tsp salt (if savory crust)
A mix of 1 part grain alcohol, 1 part water, ideally in a squirt bottle
Note: This recipe uses a food processor

Directions:
Cut the butter into 1 inch cubes and put everything in the freezer for a good 30 minutes before starting. Yep. Everything. In the freezer.

Put the flour and sugar or salt in the food processor and give it a quick buzz to mix. Cover it first, silly, or you'll have flour all over the place.

Next in goes HALF the butter. There is an eternal debate about the ideal size of butter clumps floating in flour, which Carolyn solves once and for all by blending the first half into the consistency of sand, and then adding the other half and blending until they are about the size of lima beans.

Then comes the water and alcohol liquid. This you squeeze in 2 tablespoons at a time, blasting a few times in the blender between each addition, for a total af about 6T. Always use bursts of processing, checking each time before adding more liquid because there is no perfect amount. The liquid to flour ratio will depend on altitude, the weather that day, how long your flour has sat out, etc. So you have to develop and eye and a fist for it.

When a handful squeezed in your fist clumps together, you probably have enough liquid, and a few more blasts of processing will get you to the 'ball' point you see to the side.

This is always kind of a miraculous process as it looks as if there is no possible way that there is enough liquid... and then three seconds later it is a wet ball of dough.

The food processor comes in handy here: you're supposed to work fast, keeping the dough cool, and the food processor makes that possible.

You'll see that this is a bit more moist than a lot of crust recipes, but the secret of the alcohol is that it dissolves extremely quickly, leaving your crust perfectly flaky while still giving you a dough that is moist enough to work with.

Place the ball of dough in the fridge for 1hour before working it! Yes, covered, silly. This makes for a more tender crust because it loosens the gluten.  Remember: you have enough for two here, so it is a good idea to separate it into two before putting them in the fridge. The second can keep for a day or two.

When you're ready to roll it out, the ideal is on a silicon pad sprinkled with flour. I won't pretend to know other good alternatives, but metal and marble stay really cold... just sayin. Perhaps on parchment paper, also sprinkled with flour.

Roll starting from the center and moving out, with short gentle rolls, making sure the roller has a bit of flour to keep the dough from sticking. Drape the finished crust over your roller and gently unfold into your pie crust.

If you're highly skilled like Carolyn, you can use this fancy crimping method for the sides.

If you are going to fill the crust with a non-bake filling (French Silk, for example), you'll need to blind bake first. 

All that means is prebaking, but if you just throw the pan in the oven as is, the crust will puff up in the middle, giving you a crust dome instead of a crust that you can fill. Wikihow has a good article on it.

Blind Baking:
1. use a fork to punch a bunch of holes in the bottom of the crust
2. cover it with parchment paper
3. fill the pie with a dry bulk item in the kitchen, or if you're fancy with ceramic pie crust beans you can buy in stores that are fancy like yourself
4. bake.

Flying French Silk Pie: "I believe in a certain way of eating"

I believe in apprenticeship. Somewhere in the transition to modern science we took on a chemical
understanding of the human person and forgot that humans learn from other humans. Slowly. and it with lots of love.

I had the great luck to spend an afternoon last fall with Carolyn Atkinson, the chef and owner of Flying Pi Kitchen in Wilmington, NC, basking in the long and nuanced knowledge of a "from scratch" sage. The original plan was to learn to cook her famous Ginger Pie - think of a gingery chess pie with sweet cream over top - which she believes will be the signature pie of the shop. But I ask a lot of questions, and her responses are immeasurably generous, so before the afternoon was out I had filled my little notebook with a handful of recipes and an infinity of ideas.

It was one of those afternoons that started gently, with a nice cup of tea and a discussion on her inspirations (Alton Brown, Graham Kerr and the Galloping Gourmet), her disappointments with the mediocracy of the modern food supply chain (one year with Sysco Services) and the essentials for a well equipped kitchen (one paring knife, one bread knife, and one chef's knife, along with solid measuring cups, dried potatoes and good spices).

It ended with a pie in hand, popovers in my belly, and a new found passion for the possibilities of from scratch cooking to bring the community together. I felt a bit overwhelmed by the task of trying to do her generosity justice in blog form. And so as with all things, I put it off. The notebook I took with me is full of small wisdoms (Don't use any ingredient you wouldn't eat yourself: no one drinks cooking sherry, so don't cook with it!), tips on how to learn to cook (smell everything and notice where you feel it on your tongue as you inhale), and even a bit of world history (Pregnant french women around the world wars were required to take classes on the exact portions needed for their children, creating a nation unconsciously portion controlled individuals!). I will slowly try to share some of this with you.

We will start with French Silk Pie. This no-bake pie recipe is actually just the recipe for the filling, which you pour into an already baked crust and chill. Enjoy and keep an eye out for the next round of recipes.

Ingredients:
1 prebaked flying pie crust
1/2c softened butter

(just take it out of the fridge for a few hours before you start)

3/4c caster sugar*

1oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled

1t vanilla

3 eggs, lightly beaten

*Caster sugar is just a white sugar that has been ground more finely and is also called baking sugar. If you don't want to buy it, just grind some sugar in a food processor or a coffee grinder.

Directions:
Prepare you pie crust (Carolyn's version coming soon! but sneak peak, the secret is high proof alcohol), fork the bottom and bake it. Let cool.

In a mixer on medium, beat together the softened butter and the sugar for a good few minutes.

Add the chocolate, making sure it is already cooled, and scraping down the sides to keep the mix homogeneous.

Add one egg at a time, adding the next as soon as you can no longer see the last.

This is an emulsification effect and it should get light and fluffy for you.

Add the vanilla.

Beat for a good five minutes in total.

Pour into pie crust and chill.

Lime Pie

Jacqueline inspired this pie. 

and then I realized I had a similar recipe from my grandmother

whose cooking I never really knew,

but whose recipe box I photographed extensively.

So I melded their recipes,

Then I added some of my own inspiration

and I must say

the product was QUITE delicious!

I divided it into two small pies

to serve to two different groups of friends

and everyone raved

even the 'I dont like lime tarts' naysayers

But I'd guess it could make 1 good 9x9in dish

Crust:

18 petit beurre cookies, crushed

or 5-6 graham crackers

stirred in with 4tbsp coconut flakes

and 2-3 tsp sugar

and finally, 125g/8-9tbsp melted butter

the crumbs should stick in a ball when squeezed in your fist

if not, add more butter!

Press firmly into the bottom of a spring release pan

or a tin lined baking sheet like I did

bake for 15-20 minutes at 185ºC/350ºF

or until lightly browned

let cool 

Lime layer:

2 eggs + 2 yolks (save the whites for next step)

plus 1/2c sugar

grate the zest of two limes

or three if you really like the tartness!

then squeeze in their juice

1/2 c crème légère

Whip all this together and place in your double boiler

Meaning, mix it in a metal bowl,

put a pot of water on to boil

and fit the metal bowl over top

but make sure no water gets in your batter

it should leave a film on a wooden spoon dipped in

cool, pour in crust

Meringue:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºC

 put 2-3 egg whites in a very large bowl

add pinch of salt

and beat the heck out of it with a whisk.

Until you get stiff peaks, in fact

there are a million videos of this online, 

and it can be done easily with a mixer!

add 2-3 T sugar and beat just a minute more

 pour over top of the lime layer

sprinkle coconut and lime gratings over top

bake at 180 till just browned

Refrigerate for at least 5 hours!!!!

remove from pan, remove

Jacqueline's shortcut, but oh so good as an idea all on its own, version coming soon!

Pumpkin Pie

Roasted and mashed sweet potatoes are equally wonderful!

Crust:
100g white flour
50g whole wheat
30g sugar
35g butter, rubbed in

1 tbsp at a time of ice water until assembled

optional:

20-30g almond powder (more almond powder is always an option)

1/2 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg, salt

1. Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes and stick in the freezer for 10 minutes before starting

2.Stir together the flours, spices, salt, sugar, almond powder. Add the cold butter and rub in. This means wash your hands, dry them, and stick them in the dough. start

3. Use a fork to poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust so that it doesn't puff up while it bakes. For this recipe, a prebaked crust is good - so throw it in at 160ºC for 10 minutes before filling it for the final bake.

Filling:
~1.5 cups roasted and mashed pumpkin or sweet potato
2 tbsp apple sauce (you can substitue vegetable oil, or probably melted butter)

100g sugar total, 30g of which is best as vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg, freshly ground is yummy
3 egg yolks, 3 egg whites
1/2 c marscapone!!! (substitute with yogurt or buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC

1.Whip together the filling in the following order, mixing well between each step: sweet potatoes, apple sauce/butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, egg yolks.

2.Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the egg whites in a huge bowl and beat them with a wire whip until they form "soft peaks."

The more you whip them, the more fluffy/airy your pie will be. I overdid it the last time I made the pie and while still pleasant, it lacked the dense consistency that I love about pumpkin pie. Here is a great "how to" video. You don't actually need to understand what he is saying, just watch his method!

3.Keep the whip on hand. Pour the batter into the egg whites, whip well, adding the coconut milk last. Pour into baked crust, pop in the oven for 35 minutes at 375ºF/190ºC

Pâte Sablée, Sandy Crust

#2 in the french crust series: Sandy Crust

150g flour
20g sugar
~100? 80? g butter

1 egg yolk
water until the dough is malleable

mix
knead
roll out on wax paper
(it will stay crumbly)
put in mold
poke with a fork
200C for about 25 minutes if filling with an uncooked filling

good for chocolate tarte, apple tart

Tarte de Rhubarbe

1 pie crust

2 rhubarbs, washed, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Whisk together for pie filling:
2 eggs
100 g cream (thick!)
50g flour
120 g sugar

Arrange rhubarb pieces in the raw crust, pour filling over top, bake at 225 C for 30 minutes.

Word to the wise: do not leave it in the oven for 2 hours while you go to masse on sunday morning. If you do so, you will not have a picture of the finished product, nor any clue about the taste of the recipe you are posting on your blog.