Pie, Oh Pie!

So in this merry month of May, we're going to be focusing on pies, sweet pies, savory pies, fun pies.  Why?  Because gorgeous weekend weather is making an early morning trip to the Farmer's Market a key part to the weekend and there are so many fresh fruits and veggies out that we decided pies was the way to go.  Plus, we really like pie.

So to start you out, we're going to give you two basic pie crust recipes -- a flaky pie crust and a graham cracker crust.  Later in the month we'll also be doing a basic savory tart recipe, but for now, we'll get you rolling with these.  :)

Basic Pie Crust
makes a single crust for a 9” or 10” pie; can be easily doubled for a covered pie

6 tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Combine cold water and salt, and set aside. Putting mix in the fridge is a good idea to make sure the water is as cold as possible.

Combine flour and butter in a bowl until the mixture looks like course cornmeal. If there are still some larger pieces of butter in the mix, as long as they aren’t bigger than the size of a pea, you’re okay. Whatever you do, DON'T over-mix it.

Here are three methods you can use to mix the flour and butter.  Pick whichever you're most comfortable with:

1. (trickiest) Use your hands. This can be difficult when you're first starting out because there’s a tendency to overwork the flour and butter which will make the crust tough. The trick here is to have cold hands, as cold as possible, to keep the butter from melting into the flour. To do that, you can run them under cold water or hold something chilled at intervals while you’re working the mix.

2. (less tricky) Use a pastry cutter (or alternatively, if you're coordinated enough, use two forks) to cut the butter into the flour. Make sure to stop before the pieces get too little..

3. (easierest) Use a food processor. Dump your flour and butter into the food processor and pulse in VERY quick bursts until your mixture resembles cornmeal.

When you’ve reached the right consistency, make a small well in the mixture and pour about 1/2 of your cold water into the well. With one hand (so that you don’t get dual doughy mitts) gently mix the water into the flour and butter, as soon as the water is incorporated STOP mixing (imagine us yelling at you... we don't want your tough crust).

If there is still flour that doesn't seem to be wet, add more water, do this until all of your flour has been moistened. You'll know that you're done when you can squish pieces of dough together and it stays. Don't over water! The dough may look dry, but it can be deceiving.

Gently roll dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and flatten into a 1/2 inch disk. Wrap completely and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Dough can be kept refrigerated for a couple of days before using.

When you're ready to use your dough, place on a lightly floured surface, sprinkle flour on top of dough and roll. Make sure that your crust isn't sticking to the surface (pick up the sides and sprinkle more flour if this happens).

Put rolled crust into a pie pan and bake according to the directions of whatever pie you're making!


Graham Cracker Crust
makes a single crust for an 8" or 9”

1 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers (7 full crackers)
2 tbsp sugar
5 1/2 tbsp melted butter

Crush graham crackers – we did it by putting the crackers in a large plastic zip lock and running them over with a rolling pin (crush crush crush).

this is what we mean by one full cracker

Melt butter. About 25 second in the microwave will do. If there are still some butter lumps, just keep stirring the butter after you take it out until they melt away.  You want it to be melted but not separated (should be a creamy yellow color).

Add sugar and melted butter to crumbs and mix well. Pour into a pie dish (9” works, but 8” would probably work better) and press to fill the pan.

Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. When it comes out of the oven, if it’s puffy, just take a spoon, and using the back of it, press the crust down until flat. Let cool and then proceed as planned with filling.

NOTES

For the graham cracker crust you can use regular, honey, cinnamon or chocolate graham crackers.  Depends on what kind of filling you're filling with and what you think will work best.

Get ready for a month of tasty treats!  If you have any particular type of pie that you're really interesting in making, let us know and we'll see if we can't fit that in for you.