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Pecan Pie Can Be So Addictive

Post author By Guest Post
Post date March 23, 2017

By Thomas Byers

The Origin of the Pecan

Many people think that pecans came to the New World from Europe but actually, the pecans were here and were a part of the Native Americans’ diet long before the first European ever set foot in what became the present-day United States. Nuts like pecans were a very important protein to the Native Americans.

It was not until the French settled New Orléans that the first wonderful desserts began to be made from the pecans the French Settlers found growing in the area. A similar desert to pralines had been made in France but it was made from almonds and it was much different from the pralines that were soon made and sold in what came to be the French Quarter of old New Orléans. Today you will find tons of pecans being turned every day into delicious pralines and sold all over New Orléans.

The Origin of Pecan Pie

I have often wondered how that first pecan pie came to be. It is known that the pie was being made and sold in the French Quarter of New Orléans as early as 1750 and maybe before. And with all the wonderful cooks and chefs in New Orléans, it wasn’t long before all different kinds of pecan pie were being cooked and served in New Orléans.

One of the most famous variations is a Chocolate Pecan Pie and it is very popular all over New Orléans and as far west as Texas and you’ll find it being served all over the entire gulf coast.

You’ll also find miniature pecan pies served all over the south and the miniature pecan pie is now very popular as far east as North Carolina and as far west as Seattle. You’ll find them made many different ways but one of the main ingredients that never changes are the pecans.

Working with Pecans

Some people will tell you they must have the freshest pecans possible for their delicious pecan pies while other people like to shell the pecans, freeze them and then take them out of the freezer and produce delicious pecan pies with them. Pecans can be shelled and frozen in the freezer for up to a year with no change in their taste.

One of the recent tricks that people have started doing with pecans is they grind just a few of the pecans very fine and add those finely ground pecans to their pecan pie recipes. When you add just a couple of tablespoons of fine ground pecans to a delicious homemade pecan pie it adds a deeper flavor of pecans to your pecan pie that you can’t get any other way.

If you love pecans then you just have to make yourself some delicious glazed and baked pecans. To a pound of pecans, you want to add a cup of butter and a half cup of brown sugar and stir everything up together and bake your pecan mixture on a baking pan for 45 minutes in a 350-degree oven and you’ll get pecans that will be oh so tasty and delicious.

Serving Pecans

My Grandmother used to make these delicious glazed and baked pecans and they are so wonderful. We used to have homemade vanilla ice cream with a big spoon of glazed and baked pecans on top of the ice cream. You won’t ever taste anything quite as delicious.

But there is nothing that can ever compare to the taste of a big piece of pecan pie fresh baked from the oven with a big spoon of whipped cream on top of it. And I have come up with a secret ingredient that you can add to a homemade pecan pie that just takes it to a whole new level.

If you would like that recipe for delicious homemade pecan pie just Click Here Now. You will find a recipe that includes several secret ingredients and almost everyone that tries this pecan pie says that it is one of if not the best pecan pies that they have ever tasted.

And be sure to check out Chocolate Pecan Pie which is quickly becoming popular all over the southern United States. Let me ask you a very serious question. Have you ever tasted pralines? If not then you owe it to yourself to make some delicious homemade pralines very soon. I hope there is a delicious pecan pie in your future very soon.

On a Personal Note

Over the last thirty years while working as an award winning Chef I have worked a lot with pecans and I hope you will check out all the wonderful recipes I have for pecan pie and be sure if you love pecans that you click this link and check out the recipe for pecan pralines which are oh so delicious and easy to make.

If you’ve never tried pralines then now is the time to make and enjoy delicious homemade pralines and maybe just maybe there will be a delicious homemade pecan pie in your future.

About the Author

Thomas Byers is an award winning Chef with about forty plus years of experience. He loves to cook and share recipes. He has won many barbecue and chili cook-off contests. In the last forty plus years, he has won over $150,000 in cash prizes for his cooking. In 1998, he was named number 3 In The 10 Best Chefs In Florida.

Create Your Own Unique Pie!

Does pie making daunt you? Are you wary of deviating from any pie-recipe you find, for fear that you’ll ruin the flavor of the resulting pie?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Pie-Palooza 2017 is brought to you by Your Perfect Pie, a cookbook that breaks down pies into easily made component parts so you can unleash your pie-making creativity. Available on Amazon in both print and Kindle formats. Grab your copy today and start creating your perfect pie!

Miss previous posts? Find links to them here.

Tags pecan pie, pecans, Pie-Palooza 2017, Thomas Byers

Food Fiction & Essays Recipes

Simple Little Pies

Post author By Guest Post
Post date March 22, 2017

By Paige Gould

Thanksgiving is the best time of the year to roll out the pies. A few years back, I used to make about 6 pies, my neighbor’s husband was in Iraq, and I felt bad that she had to spend Thanksgiving without her sweetheart, so I had my husband truck over an apple pie. My other neighbors used to give me Gilfeather turnips and I returned the favor with a pie, and still another couple who were on a fixed budget, I sent a pie. There is something so cathartic about giving.

Pies differ from area to area, I don’t go to Oklahoma for an authentic Key Lime Pie, or to California for a Michigan Cherry Pie.

My parents live in Maine and that is the farthest north you can get on the east coast. Maine is synonymous with blueberries. When I go to Maine, I want blueberry pie packed thick with tart Wild Maine blueberries, and for unexplained reasons, the crunchy breakfast cereal Grape-Nuts has made it’s way into pie from Presque Isle to Kennebunkport.

Traveling south the Apple pie begins to make its debut. Vermont, New Hampshire and New York are prime growing areas for apples. Apple pie can be double crusted or Crumb, which is my favorite.

As we travel into Amish/ Pennsylvania Dutch country the Shoo-Fly pie is common. It is a mixture of molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and butter, some pies are considered wet-bottomed meaning there is a sweet filling and then a crumb topping, or dry-bottom the crumb topping is folded into the filling. The unique thing about this pie is that all ingredients can keep without refrigeration. The name came about by the bakers having to shoo the flies away, because the flies were attracted to the sugar.

As we cross the Mississippi River, heading south into Virginia, pie makers compete for the best Sweet potato pie, yams or sweet potatoes were cultivated in the area since the 1600’s. The sweet potato is treated much in the same fashion as the pumpkin pie resulting in a silky spicy custard.

Moving a little west we enter the Volunteer state where soul food like egg custard pies and buttermilk pies are popular, motoring into the Music City, Nashville has taken the custard pie a step further by adding sweet toasted coconut. The difference is they make a rich pastry cream on the stove, instead of baking the custard in the oven. Folding it with copious amounts of coconut and decadent whipped cream.

Georgia is known for their peaches, and what better way to celebrate Georgia than having a piece of peach pie, what is also surprising is that Georgia is one of the top manufacturers of pecans and pecan pie.

The pride of Atlanta, Georgia is Lemon icebox pie, which is the northern cousin of Key lime Pie from Key West, Florida. It is made with lemon juice, eggs and condensed milk.

We round out our Eastern seaboard pie quest with, of course, Key Lime Pie. The key lime arrived in the Keys with the Spanish in the 1500’s, and was described as a confused lemon. Having features of both the lemon and the lime. Surprisingly hurricanes wiped out all traces of the actual key lime. You now, must know someone who knows someone to get an authentic key lime.

In the Midwest, the area still has shadows of their resourcefulness. Settlers developed the land with fruit trees and Yankee ingredients were in short supply. In Michigan they have tart Michigan cherries, made into delicious to die for cherry pies. Pies used less flour than bread and cakes did, therefore they could be cooked in fireplaces.

Hoosier pie or Indian sugar cream pie was a very simple dessert consisting only of cream sugar and flour.

Persimmons and paw paws are made into pies in the Midwest. Persimmons are an unusual fruit in that they ripen towards the end of the fall, and have a pumpkin apricot flavor, is cooked in the same way as a pumpkin. Paw Paws were important to the native Indians and take experience to work with them. They are a cross between banana, pineapple and mango and are used in custards. Honorable mention is the Bean pie created in Chicago, made with navy beans.

Pies that have no home or an area to call their own, are pies that are made all over the United States and each state can trace the history of such a pie. Pumpkin pie it is said to have been created near Plymouth plantation, however, the pie has made its rounds all over the U.S.

Lemon Meringue pie, is said to have originated in the South, however, lemons are known to grow out west. Pecans lay claim to Georgia, but Texas might dispute that. Washington might be a little upset about the origin of the Cherry Pie, but I am sure Michigan will debate it.

The granddaddy of the pie debate hands down has to be the Apple pie. Apples grow all over the United States, and every pie aficionado from California to Maine claim the best apple pie. It is up for debate! The important thing is that Pie was created. The pie that I am going to share is a blend of pies that I have created in my life. I love pie crust, however, I love the cookie crumb crust better.

Chunky Monkey Pie

Ingredients
1 Keebler Ready Crust Chocolate Pie Crust
8 ozs melted semi-sweet chocolate
2 teaspoons Crisco
3 large ripe bananas
12 ozs softened cream cheese
4 ozs toasted chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 tsp banana extract
1/2 cup marshmallow cream
1 tablespoon dark rum
2 banana cut in half lengthwise and sliced
1 tablespoon banana liqueur
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 oz of butter

Directions
In a saucepan combine the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and cook until the sugar dissolves, stir in the banana liqueur, add the banana and cook until the banana softens and browns slightly, carefully add the rum, and tip the saucepan until the rum ignites.

When the flames die down, remove the bananas and cool completely. Take your ready made crust and melt only 6 ozs of the 8 ozs of semi-sweet chocolate and spread over the ready made shell and cool. Take your remaining banana, slice and layer over the chocolate painted shell.

In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and marshmallow cream mix on high until fluffy. Add the sifted powdered sugar, vanilla and banana extract and mix well. Fold in the whipped heavy cream and completely cooled banana mixture. Spoon into the chocolate pie shell.

Melt the remaining 2 ozs of semi-sweet chocolate with the 2 tsp of Crisco in the microwave at 10-second intervals until mixable. Garnish the pie with the melted chocolate and refrigerate. Cut and enjoy.

Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. ~ Sandra Boynton

About the Author

Paige Gould is a professional chef and mother. She writes articles about the humor in raising a family and being a full-time chef. You can visit her at wwwdinnertime.blogspot.com to share in her latest adventures in cooking and the art of juggling it all.

Create Your Own Unique Pie!

Does pie making daunt you? Are you wary of deviating from any pie-recipe you find, for fear that you’ll ruin the flavor of the resulting pie?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Miss previous posts? Find links to them here.

Tags Paige Gould, Pie-Palooza 2017, pies

Cooking Techniques Tools of the Trade

Pie Iron Cooking – Get Experimental!

Post author By Guest Post
Post date March 21, 2017

Source: Pleuntje via Flickr

By Darren Kirby, Author of Pie Iron Recipes

Source: Pleuntje via Flickr

So last time I introduced you to the pie iron, and gave you a simple but yummy recipe for a basic fruit pie. This time I’ll give you some ways to really enhance that recipe, share some tips and tricks, and give you my absolute favorite dessert recipe. Let’s get cooking!

So you’ve played around with different fruit fillings, trying cherry, apple, blueberry, blackberry, lemon, strawberry and others, and they’re great. But have you tried swapping out the bread??? A good cinnamon swirl bread pairs great with apple or cherry filling. Try a sweeter Italian bread to pair with lemon or strawberry. Each time you use a different bread, the whole dessert pie tastes different. The combinations are nearly endless!

I’m sure you’re wondering just how to cook your pie the best. While it sounds simple, there’s really an art to cooking your pies right without turning it into a black charcoal mess. This is something that many people don’t do, or don’t do frequently enough. And don’t worry, you won’t ruin your pie or somehow destroy the cooking process. I’m referring to checking your pie while you cook! My secret here is that I don’t latch my pie iron when I cook. I bet you’ve seen the little hook attached to one of the rods of your pie iron, and you’ve probably used it too. But I’m here to tell you, it’s something to avoid.

You’ve seen cooking shows where the chefs are tasting their food as they go? The best chefs will tell you that you need to check your product if you are going to know when it’s at the right time to serve. Your pies are no different. After a few minutes over the fire, take your pie iron cooker out of the fire and pop it open. You are visually checking your bread to see how the color is coming along. Be sure to check both sides too, because one side might be getting done faster than the other. This is the way the pie iron pros end up with the best looking (and tasting) pies cooked over the fire.

Here’s another tip for you. When you go to purchase a pie iron, I always advise people to buy the cast iron version, not the aluminum. Why? Well, there are several reasons, but one of the main reasons is the fact that when comparing the two metals, aluminum has a lower melting point than iron. I’ve seen pictures of an aluminum pie maker that got too hot, and the metal actually warped! The pie iron maker really couldn’t be used after that because it wouldn’t close properly. You won’t have that problem with cast iron. Additionally, aluminum also transfers heat much faster than cast iron, so you could easily end up with more burnt pies using aluminum.

Okay, as my last parting gift, I give you my absolute favorite dessert: a chocolate-peanut butter pie! This is astonishingly easy, yet so good you won’t be able to stop yourself from making a second (or third). Here’s what you need:

Bread
Chocolate bar
Peanut butter
Butter

And here are the 4 cooking steps:

Add a slice of butter to one-half, then cover with a slice of bread
Add a half bar of chocolate and a tablespoon of peanut butter to the bread
Add a slice of bread on top of the other slice, then put a slice of butter on top of that bread
Close up the pie iron with the other half, then cook over the fire until golden brown

Just typing this up makes my mouth water! Yes, it’s really that good of a dessert. So, with these recipes and helpful tips, you’ll be sure to have the best-tasting pies in the neighborhood.

Enter to Win a copy of Pie Iron Recipes!

Did you enjoy this post? Are you itching to start cooking with a pie iron? Would you like to receive a copy of Darren’s book to get you started? For free? Darren Kirby has graciously offered to give one copy of his book away to a lucky reader. All you need to do to enter is sign up for Darren’s email list. Everyone who signs up between now and the end of March 2017 will be entered into a drawing to get a copy of Pie Iron Recipes in paperback.

Enter to Win Now!

About the Author: Darren Kirby

Different. Eccentric. Odd. Loud. Irreverent. Fun. While none of these words have been used to describe the author, he nevertheless attempts to entertain people in his own unique way. A student of people, of ideas, of the world, he hopes to entertain for a living through his writing. Fortunately, his wonderful wife and slightly unusual cat both support his efforts.

Darren has been writing professionally for more than nine years, has published 15 titles of fiction and non-fiction, taught a self-publishing class at a state university, and has recently consulted on a new book about Prince’s early life. His book Pie Iron Recipes is one of the most popular books on the topic.

Create Your Own Unique Pie!

Does pie making daunt you? Are you wary of deviating from any pie-recipe you find, for fear that you’ll ruin the flavor of the resulting pie?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Miss previous posts? Find links to them here.

Tags Darren Kirby, pie iron, Pie-Palooza 2017

Well Stocked Pantry

Why Cherries Make Great Pie

Post author By Guest Post
Post date March 17, 2017

By Lei Shishak

There are lots of great pies out there but in my opinion, cherry pie tops the list. It’s a pie that looks great, tastes great, is easy to make and is fairly foolproof.

Cherry season is distinct. The season begins in May and lasts thru August with the majority of cherries being harvested in the Pacific Northwest. Every time April rolls around, the anticipation of the start of cherry season begins to build. By the time May arrives, I’m about to bust! This is the number one reason why cherries make great pie: their season is fleeting. Cherries are here for only a mere four months and then poof, they’re gone.

Reason number two? There are many types of cherry varietals to choose from. You can play around with them and figure out which ones you like best. Cherries can be siphoned into two general categories: sweet and tart. Both are fine to bake with, but many particular Bakers prefer using tart as they can manipulate the sweetness to the liking. Tart cherries can be found at specialty farmer’s markets and are bright red, small and sphere-shaped. Sweet cherries, on the other hand, are much more prevalent and can be found at grocery stores. They can be eaten as is and are heart-shaped. Popular varieties are Bing, Rainer, and Lambert. Choose cherries that are plump, firm and are bruise-free.

Reason number three? Aside from the pitting step, cherries are easy to bake with. Cherry pie is a great pie for first-time pie bakers. Cherries are hard to over- or under-cook, maintaining their integrity well even after baking under high heat. We’ve all had apple pie with undercooked apples, and strawberry pie with mushy berries – such a disappointment! Even if the cherries are cooked prior to baking (as in my recipe for Windswept Cherry Pie), they maintain their texture and shape well.

Reason number four? Cherries pair well with other great flavors that can make your cherry pie unique. I love pairing cherry with almond. Other great pairings include chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, pistachios and sage. By the way, cherries are nutritious, too. They are loaded with phytonutrients and antioxidants.

To celebrate Pie-Palooza, I’m sharing my recipe for Windswept Cherry Pie. It’s from my first cookbook Beach House Baking. The reprint is coming out next month and includes 10 additional new recipes. You can order it on Amazon here. And while you’re on Amazon, check out my latest cookbook Farm to Table Desserts here.

Happy Baking!

About the Author

Lei Shishak is an established pastry chef who trained at the CIA in New York and worked at restaurants in Sun Valley and Los Angeles. She is the author of three notable cookbooks: Beach House Baking, Beach House Brunch, and the forthcoming Farm to Table Desserts. Her formative years were spent working as Michael Mina’s pastry chef at the Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, California. She has been featured in People, Riviera Magazine, Sunset Magazine, Coast, the Los Angeles Daily News, Fine Living, and many more media outlets. She resides in Dana Point, California.

Create Your Own Unique Pie!

Does pie making daunt you? Are you wary of deviating from any pie-recipe you find, for fear that you’ll ruin the flavor of the resulting pie?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Miss previous posts? Find links to them here.

Tags cherries, cherry pie, Lei Shishak, Pie-Palooza 2017

Recipes

Windswept Cherry Pie

Post author By Guest Post
Post date March 16, 2017

Provided by Lei Shishak

Makes one 9-inch pie

Sweet Butter Crust:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, very cold and cut into ½-inch cubes
4 ½ tablespoons ice cold water

Cherry Filling:

1 cup cherry cola
2 pounds dark cherries
2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Almond Streusel Topping:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sliced almonds
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Make the crust:

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold cubed butter. Mix on low to medium speed until butter is broken down to pea size, about one minute. Add the cold water all at once and mix until the dough comes together — about 15 seconds. Remove dough from the mixer and gently shape it into a disc with your hands. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Remove dough from the refrigerator. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Place crust into a 9-inch pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Use kitchen scissors to trim the dough leaving a ½-inch overhang. Fold overhang under to be flush with the edge of pie plate. Flute as desired. Poke holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork. Place in the refrigerator while you make the filling and streusel.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare the filling:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the cherry cola to a medium bowl. Continue cooking the cola until it is reduced to a half cup. Let the cola cool in the refrigerator while you pit the cherries. Place pitted cherries in a bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the reduced cola, cornstarch, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over low-medium heat whisking continuously. Add the pitted cherries and continue cooking until mixture is thickened and shiny — about two minutes. Transfer to a clean bowl and fold in the almond extract. Set aside while you make the almond streusel.

Prepare almond streusel:

Mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar and almonds in a medium bowl. Add the butter and toss the entire mixture gently with your hands until the butter is incorporated. The mixture will resemble loose cookie dough.

Remove the fluted pie crust from the refrigerator. Pour the cherry filling into the shell. Sprinkle the streusel over the filling. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until filling bubbles and streusel is golden brown. Let cool completely before serving.

About the Author

Create Your Own Unique Pie!

Does pie making daunt you? Are you wary of deviating from any pie-recipe you find, for fear that you’ll ruin the flavor of the resulting pie?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Miss previous posts? Find links to them here.

Tags cherry pie, Lei Shishak, Pie-Palooza 2017

Food Fiction & Essays Recipes

Church Supper Lemon Icebox Pie

Post author By Guest Post
Post date March 14, 2017

By Chuck Mallory

If you are from the Midwest and had the growing-up experience of going to a church supper at a country church, you are very lucky. I remember these fondly. Pleasant Green Baptist Church in north Missouri still stands today, and I suspect they still have their church suppers, church dinners, or maybe even church picnics. The church was founded August 25, 1885, after a revival meeting in an arbor near the site. The first pastor was paid a whopping $6 a month.

Back in the day, all the church ladies made great recipes that they knew by heart, just as well as they knew every word to the songs in the Broadman Hymnal. Tables were laden with inimitable fried chicken, country ham, mashed potatoes, green bean and corn dishes, deviled eggs (the more religious called them “angeled eggs” so as not to invoke evil), and sparkling, fruit-filled Jello salads (not a dessert — it was a “salad”). But where we kids focused was the array of mouth-watering pies, cakes and cookies.

Of course, Mom never allowed you to fill your plate with all desserts, though us younguns would have been happy to do just that. I have only a couple of recipes from those wonderful women of my youth but know that Georgie Ruth, Aunt Mildred, Bessie Pearl, Ruby Darst, “Aunt Gyp” Smith, Edythe Dickerson, Lillie Maude, Moneaka, Frankie Elam, and others, kept us fat and happy.

A summertime treat from those days would be an “icebox pie.” That was when people still called refrigerators “ice boxes” from the early days when it really was an insulated box with a block of ice in it. Of course, we had a modern refrigerator but called it “the icebox.” Did you?

Remember, this was created to be an old-fashioned recipe. I could have developed it with all kinds of modern substitutes but I don’t prefer aspartame, olestra, sucralose and other things that do not come directly out of the ground, a hen, or a cow’s udder. So don’t shirk at the nine egg yolks, butter and heavy cream. You gotta eat up for a long day o’ preachin!

Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: overnight or 1 day
Calories: don’t even ask

Church Supper Lemon Icebox Pie

Ingredients for Lemon Icebox Pie

3 cups crushed vanilla wafer cookies (plus extra whole cookies for topping)
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups whipping cream, divided (second cup is optional for topping)
1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons superfine sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 large egg yolks
Superfine sugar
20 to 21 ounces sweetened condensed milk (this typically comes in 14-ounce cans; use 1 and 1/2 cans)
1 cup lemon juice (bottled is fine)

Directions for Lemon Icebox Pie

Preheat oven to 325 F. Crush vanilla wafer cookies to a fine crumb.
In a medium bowl, place cookie crumbs and melted butter. Mix thoroughly. Press into the bottom and about an inch up the side of a 10-inch pie pan or springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes, remove and let cool.
In a medium bowl, pour 1 cup whipping cream, 2 teaspoons superfine sugar and vanilla extract, and whip to soft peaks, about 3 to 5 minutes. (Do not be concerned if you are not creating stiff “whipped cream,” as this part will be folded into another mixture and frozen.)
In a large bowl, mix egg yolks and remaining superfine sugar. Whisk at high speed (hand or stand mixer) for about 5 minutes, until mixture is somewhat fluffy. Stirring slowly, add sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice until mixed. Gently fold in the medium bowl of whipped cream mixture until fully blended.
Pour into prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap and put in freezer overnight or at least eight hours.
When serving, remove from freezer about 10 to 15 minutes before serving. If desired, top with whole vanilla wafer cookies. Whip 1 more cup whipping cream to firm peaks and use as topping.

NOTE: I doubt the church ladies fussed with something like superfine sugar. You can use regular sugar in this recipe, but it’s easier to mix superfine. If you cannot find superfine sugar, put sugar in a blender and mix on high to break it down to superfine texture.

Where are the lemons? Get real! These were the old days. We didn’t mess with fresh fruit!

About the Author

Chuck Mallory is a Chicago-based writer who hails from small-town America. In the 90s, he was a writer for men’s fitness magazines and currently is at work on a novel for preteens. His first book for preteens, The Owl Motel: And Other Places You Are Not Welcome, was published in 2014. He writes the “Country Cooking” blog for Grit.com and his work has also appeared in Mother Earth News. The big city is not his final destination as he is looking for a small rural farm for a future of gardening and cooking in the country.

Create Your Own Unique Pie!

Does pie making daunt you? Are you wary of deviating from any pie-recipe you find, for fear that you’ll ruin the flavor of the resulting pie?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Miss previous posts? Find links to them here.

Tags Chuck Mallory, icebox pie, Pie-Palooza 2017

Cooking Techniques

Turn Out a Perfect Pie Crust Every Time

Post author By Guest Post
Post date March 13, 2017

Guest writer Teeny Morris making pie crust in her kitchen. Source: Teeny Morris

Guest Writer: Teeny Morris, Author of Teeny’s Tour of Pie: A Cookbook

Guest writer Teeny Morris making pie crust in her kitchen.
Source: Teeny Morris

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of perching on a tall kitchen stool next to my mom, wielding a miniature rolling pin in an entirely sincere attempt to imitate her fluid crust-rolling movements. My mom’s knack for making a good pie crust seemed truly magical and makes the idea of anything not homemade seem a bit silly. She would roll out the crust with ease, letting me help by using my little fingers to crimp the edges and would always press the leftover dough into the tiniest of tins, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake off for snacking later. My mom is the reason I never felt any trepidation when endeavoring to make my own dough or roll out a homemade pie crust.

In pie, everything starts with the crust. It is the foundation, the base, and can make all the difference between a mediocre, slightly soggy, or surprisingly chewy slice of pie and one with a light and flaky crust that’s still sturdy enough to envelop a decadent filling. When you start with a good pie crust, everything else seems to fall into place. Had I not grown up baking alongside my mom, I imagine I would have had a healthy dose of fear when it came time to attempt my first pie crust. Instead, I just did it, and then kept on doing it until I got good at it. It took time and patience, and I threw away plenty of overworked dough, but in the end, I learned how to make a crust I could proudly call my own.

Pie Crust Pride

Having spent the last six years or so in pursuit of pie, I’ve met countless bakers with their own individual ways of doing things, whether it was using a very specific type of flour; vinegar instead of ice water; all butter, all shortening, or some combination of the two. No matter what ingredients or methods they chose, they all shared an unwavering pride in their crusts. Which is the way it should be: there is something undeniably rewarding about mixing together a batch of crust from scratch.

Source: Teeny Morris

At least, it’s undeniably rewarding until it doesn’t work; dealing with temperamental dough is just the worst. After spending a year apprenticing at different pie shops across the country, I moved with my husband to Washington, D.C., and during my first few weeks of living there, every batch of dough I made was incredibly difficult to roll out. Each one fell apart before I could even get it into the pie plate, and soon I was banging my head against my new cupboards in frustration. My husband gently suggested I change a single variable at a time and drew up a pie crust chart to help me figure out what the problem was. I tried combining flours. I tried using different mixing methods. I tried different water temperatures. It turns out that because my D.C. kitchen was smaller than my previous one in Chicago, it tended to retain any and all excess heat and humidity in the air, making for some very melty crust dough. The solution was to start refrigerating my shortening and letting my dough rest in the fridge overnight. With those few changes, my crusts began to roll out beautifully.

Pie Crust Making Tips

I was surprised that such a small detail, like the few degrees difference of my tiny kitchen, could make such a huge difference in my dough. But I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of trial and error and how rewarding the end result could be if I stuck with it. Making a homemade crust is something I got better at and more confident about over time, and I’m sure the same will be true of you. To give you a head start, here are a few things that I learned that will help you turn out a perfect crust every time:

1. Start with ingredients that you love.

I got weak in the knees for the slightly nutty flavor of whole wheat flour, however because of its gluten content it can be hard to work with so I like to tame it with a little all-purpose flour. My mom loves flaky layers that only shortening can provide, so she skips the butter and goes straight for the crisco.

Source: Teeny Morris

2. Give yourself enough time.

I find that when I rush, I end up adding too much flour or too little fat and in the end am left with a stubbornly unworkable lump of dough. Most crust recipes call for a chilled resting period for your completed dough as well, and I’ve found that this step is essential. Once I’ve made my dough I let it sit in the refrigerator overnight before attempting to roll it out. The longer the dough rests, the easier it becomes to work with. If you try to roll out a crust when it’s too warm, it will fall apart or stick and you’ll end up getting frustrated. Baking should be fun, so take any potential frustration out of the process and make your pie dough a day ahead of time!

3. Chilly Ingredients.

Cold ingredients make the dough easier to work with, but they also don’t have to be absolutely frigid to work. It’s a balance when you’re working with pastry. I don’t like to fist-fight with frozen fats in order to obtain those perfect pea-sized pieces, but cold fats maintain their shape better, which leads to those flaky layers we all adore. So, I like to split the difference and refrigerate my fats rather than freeze them so they’re not stubbornly stiff when I go to cut them into the flour.

4. Don’t overwork your dough.

Pie dough is rather squishy when you mix it up and I’m all for using your hands to work everything together, but resist the temptation to knead the dough. It’s not that kind of dough, so the more you touch it, squish it, squash it, and roll it around the stronger the gluten binds together and the tougher your pie crust will be.

5. Know when to throw in the towel.

Sometimes you just need to dump the whole mess and start fresh. One of the most valuable lessons my mom ever taught me was that if you’ve reached a breaking point because your dough is still too sticky or overly crumbly and you’re considering brandishing a rolling pin at the next person who walks into the kitchen, put the pin down, take a deep breath, and know that it’s ok to scrap it and begin again.

About the Author: Teeny Morris

Teeny has been a professional baker for the last six years, with three of those years spent exclusively owning and operating her own business, Teeny Pies! She began selling pies at farmer’s markets in D.C. and has just moved to Cincinnati to continue to grow the business and open a storefront. She is an expert in the field of pie and pastries, and is well known for her cookbook, Teeny’s Tour of Pie, published in 2014 by Workman Publishing Company and named one of the best cookbooks of 2014 by Food and Wine. She loves all things pie and can be found online at teenypies.com.

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Tags pie crust, Pie-Palooza 2017, Teeny Morris