Prize Winning Pie Pastry Crust - By Peetabear Pate Brisee

Prize winning pie pastry crust - by peetabear

pointsevenout 15 years ago

Made this dough this morning. It is still in the fridge chilling. Only made half the recipe.

Observations while I'm contemplate rolling out the dough:

The ratio for a good pie crust, from my limited knowledge base,is 3:1; flour:fat.
This recipe has just shy of double the fat for just under a 2:1 ratio.

I can tell the difference in the dough. This is the first dough I've made where I can see the fat particles in the dough after I have kneaded it a few times and made it into a round flat disc for chilling.

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

Rolled out the dough. It started cracking a little so I waited a few minutes to continue rolling. Got it rolled out and looking pretty BUT everywhere I tried to pick up the dough it broke off in chunks. Using fingers or spatula, everything tore up in chunks.

Scraped it up in a pile, kneaded it a few times and reshaped to a round disc. Into the fridge to chill and try again. I think you can do that with crust dough, can't you? Noticed that the dough ball was breaking during the fold, before the turn and knead; as opposed to bending over.

Could it be I don't have enough fluid in the dough?

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

Tried rolling it out again but the dough got brittle on me at a thicker level than last time. Tried kneading it again to start building up some gluten until the dough felt like it quit breaking when folded in half for the knead. Chilling. Going to try one more time before discarding and trying the other piece of dough.

Flag
peetabear 15 years ago said:

it may not have enough liquid..sometimes that is the problem when it cracks like that..

the more times you fuss with the dough the tougher it will become and the less flaky....

you could try rolling out the 'older' piece and cut it in smaller pieces and make cinnamon twists or small pockets with some jam in them...

this dough that you are working with right now is not one I have tried... but it is one of the two my mother-in-law used... she used the second one I will post more often...and I know that one is super flaky!!

Flag
chezglenn 15 years ago said:

Oh that ice cold water! Also cold hands and the right room temp. Not always easy in different environs. Don't give up! You are getting there point.

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

Third time on the roll-out still has the dough breaking apart as I try to pick it up. Decided to try one more time. Diced the dough up with the pastry cutter. Added a little more flour and some of the egg/water/vinegar mix. Think I'll be ok with adding the extra flour since the ratio was off but it could turn out tough because of all of the work. Might just chuck it on the fourth failure or see if I can transfer the crust with the plastic wrap.

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

I'm done for the day. Pastry dough is in the can. Both pieces. Rolled the first one out a last time without any change in result. Rolled out the reserve crust with the same results. So I canned them both.

Somebody else should try their hand at making this crust. I would like to know the result.

Flag
peetabear 15 years ago said:

points..., I am sorry...I just checked the recipe again and I wrote it out right.....that doesn't mean my Mother-in-law did..... did you put all the water, egg, and vinegar in???
it sounds like it maybe too dry..... how did it feel in comparison to the other pie dough you made??? did this one feel drier or wetter etc... I'll see if I can try to make it tomorrow

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

The dough felt softer than the other crusts. Probably due to the different flour:fat ratio. I only put in half of the liquid mix. I made the liquid mix like I was going to make the full 4 ball recipe, 'cause I find it awful difficult to halve an egg. So I mixed up the 4 ball recipe liquid and just used enough of it for the dry mix to come together fluffing it with a fork.

I did freeze the shortening for a few minutes 'cause it's awfully soft even when chilled in the fridge. I wanted to get the right texture meal. Even at that, the cut in shortening resembled larger than pea size pieces. I was at the point where the more I cut the shortening in the larger the meal pieces got.

It did take half the liquid mix but I was thinking that I could probably knead the dough up without the addition of any of the liquid, the way the meal pieces were growing.

I was pleased and excited that I could see the shortening pieces in the dough. I also used butter flavored Crisco.

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

The jury is not looking kindly on this recipe "as is". I made up a different recipe last night and rolled it out this morning. Was able to manipulate it on the work surface without it tearing. Transferred it to the pie pan using the rolling pin technique.

So let's look at this recipe closer to see what can be done to make it work.

Flag
peetabear 15 years ago said:

I have mixed the dough up and it's chilling in the refrigerator right now... I made the full recipe.... that way we can see if cutting the recipe in half is a problem...

next addition coming soon !!

Flag
peetabear 15 years ago said:

well I rolled the dough out....I have not baked it .. I will tomorrow when there is somebody to try it..

Points... I made the whole recipe.... I found that I had to add 4 TBSP...of water to the mix... how much water you have to add will vary depending on the humidity and other variables...

this dough is very difficult to work with....and a beginning pie maker would have a lot of trouble with it...

I found that it does crack ....and that you need to kind of push it back in place.... that it will crack more if your touch it too heavy... the lighter you roll it the less it cracked....

the problems with getting it off the rolling surface is another tricky part... I found that I needed to take a very thin spatula and run it under it ... very gently a little at a time all the way around to the middle.... then it came up very nicely over the rolling pin..I probalilty need a little more flour underneath.... it is now in the pie plate chilling in the refrigerator....

unless this turns out really good I don't know if it's worth the trouble !!!! but i have a few more that I can roll out and see how they work!

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

I was using a metal spatula to try keeping the dough from sticking. I have a new icing butter knife that has a longer more flexible edge than the metal spatula. Maybe I can use it next time I try to make this dough. And I will make the full recipe.
It's good to know this dough is a little trouble. Being a novice pastry beater, it's heartening to know this dough takes special care versus other pie crusts.

Flag