PIE DOUGH 101: FLAKY ALL-BUTTER PIE CRUST WITH NONFAT GREEK YOGURT

Pie crust made with nonfat Greek yogurt?  Weird, yes, but amazingly tender and uber-flaky, too.  It’s a cinch to mix – right in your stand mixer!  The crust has a wonderful flavor and texture that belie the simplicity of this recipe.   No doubt about it, this has become my new favorite pie crust, thanks to salad-in-a-jar.com. 

Flaky All-Butter Pie Crust with Nonfat Greek Yogurt Adapted from salad-in-a-jar.com Rating:  10 out of 10 Click for PRINTABLE PAGE

INGREDIENTS:  1-1/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour 2 tsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt (I used Morton coarse kosher salt) 1/2 cup (4 oz., or 1 stick) cold, unsalted butter 1 egg yolk 1/4 cup unflavored or vanilla nonfat Greek yogurt (thinned with a little milk if too thick) (You can use regular full-fat, low-fat or nonfat yogurt instead of Greek yogurt, if desired.)    DIRECTIONS: Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar and salt on low speed for about 5 seconds.  Cut cold butter into 8 tablespoon-sized pieces and add to flour. Mix on low speed for about 45 seconds to partially combine butter with flour mixture.  The mixture will be shaggy with some large pieces of butter. Whisk egg yolk and yogurt together in small bowl and add all at once to flour mixture.  Mix on low speed for about 12-15 seconds.  All particles should be barely moistened but not yet coming into a ball.  In other words, you’ll have a shaggy mess that will hold together if you squeeze it between your fingers.  It will not look like it’s thoroughly mixed. Dump the dough onto a big piece of plastic wrap.  Using the palm of your hand, slide it face down from the middle toward the side of the pile to smoosh the crumbs together and flatten out the big pieces of butter that are still in the dough. Work your way around the pile until dough is smashed into one big flat clump.  It's still not smooth. Fold plastic wrap up around dough, pressing gently to form a smooth round  patty approximately an inch thick.  You should still be able to see pieces of butter in the dough.  You can roll the dough out and bake it right away, but I like to refrigerate pie dough for a few hours, or overnight, to develop the best flavor and texture.  To roll out chilled dough, let it rest on the counter, still wrapped, for about 1/2 hour. Here's the dough, rolled out.  Can you see the pieces of butter?  After your dough is rolled out and fitted into its pie plate, it’s a good idea to chill it again for 1/2 hour.  Dough that’s very cold bakes up flakier. More tips:  Handle the dough as little as possible and keep it cold.  If it warms too much, put it back in the fridge to get it cold again.  When you fit the dough into a pie plate, don’t stretch it, just lay it in gently.

FLAKY CRISCO PIE CRUST

If you have to blind-bake a pie crust, you want something that’s sturdy and won’t shrink much.  Use this recipe.  It’s also flaky and tender and tastes great.

Flaky Crisco Pie Crust Rating:  10 out of 10 Click for PRINTABLE PAGE

INGREDIENTS:  1-1/2 cups low-protein all-purpose flour, such as White Lily 1/4 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. sugar 1/2 cup Crisco vegetable shortening 4-6 Tbsp. ice water Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in small resealable sandwich bag.  Place in freezer 15 minutes.  Place Crisco in freezer on a dish. In work bowl of a food processor, pour contents of sandwich bag.  Pulse to combine.  Cut Crisco into 5-6 pieces and add to work bowl.  Pulse till mixture is like wet sand.  Pour mixture into medium bowl.  Add 4 Tbsp. ice water and toss with fork till mixture comes together.  (Add remaining 2 Tbsp. water only if it is needed.  Add 1 tsp. at a time to get to proper dough consistency.)  Pat dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1/2 hour or up to overnight.  Use as little flour as possible when rolling dough out.  Yield:  1 single pie crust.

PERFECTLY FLAKY PIE CRUST

This recipe, from Aida Mollenkamp at Food Network, has been tweaked by me and it’s pretty good.  Instead of using all-purpose flour, I used part White Lily flour to make the crust more tender.   I added some liquor to the dough to create more tenderness also.  For my coconut cream pie (pictured), I used 1 Tbsp. coconut-flavored rum, but you can use whatever alcohol will complement the dish you are making. 

Perfectly Flaky Pie Crust Adapted from Aida Mollenkamp, Food Network Rating:  9.5 out of 10 PRINTABLE PAGE

INGREDIENTS:  (single pie crust) 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 3/4 cup low-protein flour, such as White Lily all-purpose bleached 2 tsp. sugar 3/4 tsp. sea salt 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, diced, frozen 1/4 cup Crisco shortening, chunked, frozen 1 Tbsp. liquor of choice, chilled About 4 Tbsp. ice water In resealable plastic bag (I used a sandwich bag), combined flours, sugar and salt.  Seal and shake bag to mix well.  Place in freezer for 15 minutes.  In work bowl of food processor, pulse  flours, salt and sugar till well combined.   Add butter; pulse till coated with flour.  Add shortening; pulse till mixture forms pea-size pieces with some larger chunks.  Check mixture will fingers.  It should come together in fist-sized clumps when squeezed.  Transfer mixture to medium bowl and drizzle in the liquor and 2 Tbsp. ice water.  Rake through the mixture with fingers  until it is just moistened.  Drizzle in remaining  water 1 Tbsp. at a time and comb  through with fingers to moisten.  It will go from being a shaggy mess to coming together.  Dough is moist enough when it is moistened through but is not wet when pressed.  (Do not overwork the dough or it will become tough.) While rotating the bowl with 1 hand, push dough between other palm and side of bowl to gather into a ball.    Turn dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, press into a flat disk, then close in wrap.    Place in coldest part of fridge (usually back  bottom shelf) at least 30 minutes (overnight is better) before rolling out and forming into a crust.

FLAKY CREAM CHEESE PIE CRUST, ADAPTED

Here’s the recipe I used for my Chicken Pot Pies. I’m also going to use this pie crust recipe for my Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. What I especially like about this recipe is the fact that the dough is firm and doesn’t shrink. The flavor is good, and the crust is flaky and tender. It probably would have been more so had I used all bleached flour. I opted to use half unbleached all-purpose. It was great for chicken pot pies, and I suspect it will also be great for my pumpkin pie. I’ll let you know.

Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust (for 9” pie shell) Adapted from epicurious.com, “The Pie and Pastry Bible,” 1998 Cordon Rose, Inc. Rating: 10 out of 10 PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS: 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cold 1 cup + 1 Tbsp. pastry flour or 1 cup (dip & sweep) bleached all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose & 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. White Lily all-purpose) 1/8 tsp. salt (1/4 tsp. for savory recipes) 1/8 tsp. baking powder 1/4 cup cream cheese, cold 1 Tbsp. ice water 1-1/2 tsp. cider vinegar Cut the butter into 1/2” cubes. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze about 30 minutes. Place the flour, salt and baking powder in a reclosable plastic sandwich bag and freeze about 30 minutes. (I also put the work bowl and metal blade of my food processor in the freezer.) In the work bowl of a food processor with the metal blade, pulse flour mixture a few times to combine. (Save the sandwich bag for the finished dough.) Cut cream cheese into 3 or 4 pieces and add to flour. Process for about 20 seconds, or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add frozen butter cubes and pulse until none of the butter is larger than the size of a pea. (Toss with a fork to see it better.) Remove the cover and add vinegar and water. (I actually added about 3 Tbsp. water, as 1 Tbsp. just didn’t do it.) Pulse until most of the butter is reduced to the size of small peas. The mixture will be in particles and will not hold together. Spoon it into the plastic bag. Holding both ends of the bag opening with your fingers, knead the mixture by alternately pressing it, from the outside of the bag with the knuckles and heels of your hands until the mixture holds together in one piece and feels slightly stretchy when pulled. Flatten into a disc, reseal the bag and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, preferably overnight. Can be refrigerated up to 2 days; frozen, up to 3 months.

COOK'S ILLUSTRATED VODKA PIE CRUST

Leave it to Cook's Illustrated to come up with a pie crust recipe that uses vodka to get a flaky, tender crust. Naturally, there's a scientific reason for it: 80 Proof vodka is 60% water, 40% alcohol. The alcohol burns off, leaving a tender, flaky crust. The alcohol also does not add to gluten formation, another factor in the incredible flakiness of this crust. So I tried it for my pumpkin pie this year. But we didn't have an 80 Proof vodka -- we had Smirnoff 70 Proof; and it worked just fine, even though it was citrus flavored. You cannot taste the vodka, nor the citrus. Since part of the secret of this recipe is chilling the crust, even after rolling, I decided to use an aluminum pie pan, instead of the usual glass one. CI recommends placing the pie on a cookie sheet and baking it on the bottom oven grate , so I did away with my pizza stone and followed their instructions.

What can I say? CI came through again. This pie crust ranks right up there with my fave, and I thought I had the best recipe for pie crust. I've rated both recipes 10 out of 10; both pie doughs are tender and flaky and flavorful, though I think my old fave has slightly more flavor, given it contains an egg and vinegar; but the CI vodka crust is definitely flakier. With my first attempt at making CI's pie crust, I was amazed at how easy it was to roll out. But if I follow the CI instructions on chilling to make my fave, maybe it will also be easy to roll out. I will have to work with both doughs a number of times before I can truly make a comparison. For now, I have two favorite pie crust recipes; and either one will be okay by me.

Here's the rub. As I read a lot of the comments from people who have made this crust, I found that the dough is supposed to be very moist, more moist than usual. So It requires as much as a 1/4 cup of flour to roll it out. Well, my crust didn't need much flour at all to roll it out. What did I do wrong? I followed their recipe, that's what. They said 2-1/2 cups of flour, or 12-1/2 oz. I guess 2-1/2 cups is supposed to equal 12-1/2 oz., but my 2-1/2 cups came up short, so I had to add more flour to get the weight. The dough was not exceptionally moist. It went together, but it was tight, not exactly dry, but actually perfect for rolling, not requiring much flour at all. (In hindsight, I think what happened is that the relative humidity in my home is very low right now [about 34%]; and the flour weighed less. I did some quick research online and found that humidity levels can and do affect flour. I also had trouble with a cookie recipe same day for the same reason.) So whether you measure by weight or volume, remember to check the humidity levels in your home -- but the real key is to assess what kind of a dough you have and make an educated guess on the amount of flour you need to roll it out. (I've got another interesting story of a pie crust disaster in my early years because I used too much flour to roll out the crust -- I'll save it for another time, but please only add as much flour as you absolutely need or you may wind up with a stiff-as-a-board pie crust.) If the dough is very moist, don't be afraid to use as much as 1/4 cup flour to get it to roll out. And be sure you work with a well-chilled dough before you roll.

According to CI, this recipe yields two crusts. I used one for the pumpkin pie and froze the other for later use. Once I rolled out the dough for the pie, I still had some left over. I rerolled the dough and was able to fill a small disposable pot-pie tin (see top photo). I froze it for later use, also. Next time, I'll separate the dough into 3 crusts, instead of 2. (Note that I like a thin crust. If you roll yours thicker, you should keep to 2 crusts.)

One more note: CI recommends using pie weights when pre-baking a crust. Since I didn't have pie weights, I subbed a 1-lb. bag of dried chick peas (garbanzo beans), and they worked perfectly. They can be reused many times -- I just put mine in a plastic bag for next time.

Cook's Illustrated Vodka Pie Crust

Rating: 10 out of 10

INGREDIENTS:

12 Tbsp. (1-1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter

1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces

1/4 cup vodka (I used Smirnoff Citrus, 70 Proof)

1/4 cup water

2-1/2 cups (12-1/2 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour, divided use

1 tsp. table salt (I used sea salt)

2 Tbsp. sugar

Cut the butter into 1/4 " slices, then into quarters. Measure the shortening and cut it into small pieces. Lay it all out on a sheet of wax paper and put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

Measure the vodka and water in a measuring cup so that it equals 1/2 cup, and place it in the freezer also.

Process 1-1/2 cups flour with the salt and sugar in the work bowl of a food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add the butter and shortening and process in short, quick pulses, until dough comes together in uneven clumps. (Don't use a continuous pulse, as this incorporates the fat too quickly.) All the flour should be coated, and the dough should kind of look like cottage cheese curds. Scrape down dough and add remaining cup of flour; pulse again, with short, quick pulses, until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl, about 4-6 quick pulses. Using feeding tube, pour vodka/water mixture into bowl and again use short, quick pulses to incorporate into dough. Pulse till dough is mixed and comes together. You should be able to see tiny pieces of butter in the dough. Remove dough from work bowl and divide into two or three equal pieces (two if you like a thicker crust; three if you like your crust thinner). Flatten each into a 4" disk and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes, or up to 2 days, or freeze for later use.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400F. Place oven rack in lowest position and place a rimmed baking sheet on bottom rack. Roll out chilled dough into a circle, about 13" diameter, using two sheets of wax paper. Use the amount of flour that is right for the consistency of your dough. Place the rolled-out dough on the wax paper in the fridge for 15 minutes, then transfer to a pie plate; trim and crimp edges. Line dough with tinfoil and weight with pie weights, beans, rice or coins. (Note: a 1-lb. bag of dried chick peas works great!) Bake 15 minutes; remove foil and weights (just lift all 4 corners of the tinfoil up and out of the pie crust); bake 5-10 more minutes, or till crust is golden brown and crisp. Cool slightly. If filling with pumpkin pie filling, place hot filling in warm crust.

MY FAVORITE PIE CRUST

I wish I could remember where this recipe came from. It's at least 40 years old, and I've used it over and over because it's no-fail and not at all fussy. For the past year or so, I didn't use it because of the changes to Crisco shortening. Since they've taken out the trans-fats, the shortening acts more like oil in a pie crust and it's terribly hard to work with. It breaks apart easily, and the pie crust can't be shaped as easily as before. I've tried numerous other pie crust recipes, but none could measure up to my favorite. So I finally went back to it and adapted it. The results were better than expected. By mixing the fat, part butter, part shortening, I can now roll the crust. It still tends to break more easily than the original with shortening only, but I can live with it now. Once you try this recipe, you'll be hooked as I am on the flavor and flakiness. What's also nice is that it makes 4 crusts at one time, which can be frozen and used later.

My Favorite Pie Crust

INGREDIENTS: 4 cups all-purpose flour lightly spooned into cup (I used half White Lily
bleached and half Pillsbury unbleached.)
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. sea salt
3/4 cup cold solid vegetable shortening
1 cup cold or frozen unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. white or cider vinegar (I use cider)
1 large egg, cold

DIRECTIONS: Place flour, sugar and salt in workbowl of food processor or large mixing bowl. Add shortening and pulse till it is incorporated into flour and there are no shortening pieces visible. (By hand, cut in shortening with pastry blender or knives.) Now do the same with the butter, but only process until butter is in very small pieces, smaller than peas. In a measuring cup, combine the vinegar and egg. Add enough ice water to make 1/2 cup. Add enough of the egg mixture to the flour mixture to form a ball. Sometimes you will use it all, other times there will be some liquid unused.  (By hand, mix with fork till pastry forms a ball.) Separate dough into four equal pieces. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for several month.

PATE SUCREE (BASIC SWEET DOUGH)

This is the pastry I made today for the apple cobbler crostada I will be bringing to our Thanksgiving dinner. I've made this dessert before, and it's very good. The pastry does not keep well, however, so you should plan on eating this the day it's made. Or reheat it if it's from the day before. The dough must be made a day ahead and left to rest in the fridge overnight. I'm letting it rest for 2 nights because I will put this together on Thanksgiving Day. (Note: I halved the recipe since I am only making one crostada.) This recipe is from nbc11.com. As with all pastry dough, have all ingredients as cold as possible before starting and work quickly with the dough. Get it in the fridge as fast as you can.

Pate Sucree (Basic Sweet Dough)

INGREDIENTS: 1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
pinch sea salt
1/3 cup butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
2 - 4 Tbsp. heavy cream

DIRECTIONS: Put the flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and pulse quickly until the butter is "cut" and the mixture looks and feels like pebbles. Add the egg yolks and half the cream and pulse to incorporate. Keep adding cream (up to 4 Tbsp. total) and pulsing until the dough starts to come together. Remove from the mixer, form into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

BUTTER PIE CRUST FOR ONE-CRUST PIE

This is the pie crust I made today for our Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie. It's always best to make pie crusts a day or two before you make the pie, so the gluten can relax. The secret to flaky pie crusts is not only the ingredients but also having them at the right temperature. Pie Crusts are the one thing that needs cold ingredients, the colder the better. And they must be mixed as quickly as possible. The idea is to coat the fat rather than mixing it in. A food processor is a really wonderful help in making a good piecrust, because the short pulses coat the fat rather than mixing it in.

Butter Pie Crust for One-Crust Pie

INGREDIENTS: 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. sugar
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk, cold
1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup ice water

DIRECTIONS: Pulse flour, sugar and salt in food processor (or mix with whisk in large bowl). Add butter and pulse till mixture is like cornmeal, with maybe some of the butter like pea size (or cut in butter with pastry blender). Combine the water, yolk and vinegar in a small cup or bowl and slowly add to the flour mixture. In food processor, pulse till it comes together. By hand, toss with fork as you add the liquid. This is where you have to be attentive. Don't add any more liquid than the flour needs to hold it together, so don't be too quick to add liquid. Once it comes together in a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or longer. I make my dough several days ahead. You can also freeze this; put it in the fridge the night before you need it. This dough has a nice flavor and is tender and a little flaky, but not as flaky as a shortening crust.