Pies can be an easy crowd-pleasing dessert for last-minute holiday gatherings, but they can also be intimidating to folks who haven’t worked much with the infamously fussy dough. We went to an expert for some advice.
Sadly, Suzanne Loving’s The Loving Pie Company in Berry Hill is closing its doors for good this week, though the baker tells us we can expect more from her in the future. For now, check out her tips on how to ensure that your pie crusts are as flaky as they are pretty.
1. Always start with very cold ingredients.
“My great-grandmother used to freeze blocks of butter and use a cheese grater to cut the butter into tiny pieces before it was cut into the flour,” says Loving. “It’s important to keep all of your ingredients as cold as possible for the flakiest of crusts. Ice the water, use almost-frozen butter, even put your mixing bowl and flour in the freezer for a few minutes to chill them out. It’s important to be quick about it, so you aren’t overworking or overheating the dough.”
2. Don’t overwork the dough.
“You never want to roll out dough more than twice. The gluten networks are activated when you overwork dough, and it’ll become tough, causing the crust to shrink when baked, or even before it bakes! We roll all of our dough by hand and have to be careful not to overwork it.”
3. Consider the filling.
“If you’re making your own pie dough, it’s good to know the burn rate of the fat you’re using. If you use a fat that will burn faster than what your pie filling contains, your crust could burn before your filling is fully baked.”
4. No need to crimp the perfect crust.
“Cookie cutters make fun pie crust decorations. Just make sure your dough is chilled and rolled out evenly. You can even ‘paint’ the shapes using food coloring and water!”
