1. A pastry dough for a pie should be chilled when rolling it out. Chill it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so in a glass bowl (uncovered). It should go into the pan cool when adding your filling (or chilled alone with pie weights when blind cooking the crust).
2. You should prepare the dough with chilled (out of the freezer) butter slices. He pulled the butter out of the fridge, sliced it, and put it in the freezer until ready to blend with flour, etc. He said that a food processor works best when cutting the butter into the flour mixture.
3. You should blind cook your crust (double crust on the bottom) when making custard pies (or pies that you have pre-cooked the filling for). This would include any pie that you have a store bought filling for also.
4. Any decorative pieces looked best when brushed with a egg white prior to baking. We tested water, full egg brush, egg white with sugar, etc.
5. Any custard pie should have some 'wiggle' to it when fresh out of the oven. Don't forget that your pie will continue to cook in a pie tin/pie plate when it comes out of the oven. Sometimes the 'clean knife' trick isn't the best option when deciding to remove the pie from the oven.
6. Always make sure you turn your pie in the oven midway into the baking cycle. All ovens have a cool/warm spot and this helps even out the cooking of your pie.
I wasn't able to do the taste testing, but from the 15 or so there, both of these recipes are fabulous and really easy to make for the novice pie maker.
Classic Apple Pie
Follow these instructions to prepare the perfect crust for your apple pie. Decorative piecrust cutters are used to create the lattice top.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. granulated sugar
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water
For the filling:
2 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch
thick
2 lb. Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water
2 tsp. granulated sugar
Directions:
To make the dough, in a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and granulated sugar together until combined, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse 2 or 3 times. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap the disks separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough in half and then into quarters and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Unfold and gently press the dough into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
On a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the remaining dough disk into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Using leaf pie cutters, make rows of cutouts in the dough, spacing them 1/2 inch apart and leaving a 1-inch border along the edges, to create a lattice appearance. Reserve the cutouts for decorating. Reroll the dough scraps to make more cutouts. Refrigerate the lattice top and cutouts for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cornstarch. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid has thickened and become glossy, 5 to 7 minutes more. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400°F.
Let the pie shell, lattice top and leaf cutouts stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Transfer the apple filling to the pie shell, scatter the butter pieces on top, and gently invert the lattice top over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal. Brush the underside of the leaf cutouts with egg wash and gently press them onto the edges of the piecrust, overlapping the leaves slightly. Decorate as desired with the remaining leaves. Brush the entire top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour, covering the edges with aluminum foil if they become too dark. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. Serves 8.
Deep-Dish Muirhead Pecan Pumpkin Butter Pie
Be sure to use a deep-dish pie dish when preparing this recipe. The pie shell needs to be prebaked and cooled before you add the filling, so plan accordingly.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into
1/2-inch pieces
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water
For the filling:
4 eggs
2 cups (about 1 1/3 jars) Muirhead pecan
pumpkin butter
2 cups evaporated milk
Directions:
To make the pastry, in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and sugar and pulse to blend. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse twice. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water, 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven. Place a cookie sheet on the rack. Preheat the oven to 400°F. (The pie dish will be placed on the cookie sheet, which will help the bottom of the crust to brown.)
Let the chilled dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Roll out the dough into a 12-inch round about 3/16 inch thick. Brush off the excess flour. Transfer to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish and press the dough into the dish. Trim the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold under the excess dough and, using your thumb, decoratively flute the edges. Using a fork, gently poke holes in several places on the bottom of the crust. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 minutes.
Line the piecrust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Place the pie dish on the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment and weights and continue baking until the crust is light golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes more. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes before filling the pie shell.
Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
To make the filling, in a large bowl, gently whisk the eggs. Add the pecan pumpkin butter and evaporated milk and whisk until well combined. Pour the filling into the prebaked pie shell and bake until the center of the pie is set, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. If the edges of the crust begin to brown too quickly, cover them with aluminum foil.
Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 4 hours before serving. If making in advance, cover the cooled pie with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 8 to 10.
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