Special Equipment Pate Brisee

Special equipment

pointsevenout 15 years ago

Is there some type of sleeve you can buy to keep the dough from sticking to the roller?
Is there a special work surface to do the same thing?
I saw a teflon rolling pin in the store a few months back. It's quite pricey. Is it worth the investment? My rolling pin has finally lost one of its ears, in that, it keeps coming off and the metal axle attaching the two ears (ok call them handles) is rusty.
Are there special techniques to roll out the dough on a regular work surface to keep it from sticking and adsorbing too much flour? I understand the more flour the dough adsorbs the tougher the final product.

Flag
peetabear 15 years ago said:

you really don't need a sleeve... if your rolling pin is new you will have more of a problem then one you have used for awhile..

Just lightly rub some flour on the rolling pin... it should feel a little gritty... put a little flour on the top of the pie dough again you have that same type of feeling..

if you are using a bread board or your counter top.... try to make sure they are cool..
put a little flour on the surface...start rolling out the dough from the center out... work to the back.. then to the front...then the sides... you can lift the dough up and turn it at this point...always start from the center and work out ...

it is important to use a light hand when rolling it out ... periodically lift the dough up from the outside to the middle to make sure it's not sticking...you may need to add a little more flour to the board or the top of the dough.. that's normal

when you have the size for your crust pick it up by putting your rolling pin in the middle and lifting the dough over the rolling pin and put it in the pie plate that way ... loose side first and gently roll off the pin... fit it gently to the plate and cut the edges off about 1-inch from the edge of the pie plate... turn the edges over and crimp

pie plate should be cold.... then put the crust back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so...

another important thing is to make sure your oven is preheated and at the correct temperature before you put it in the oven.... if you don't, as I have learned the hard way, it will melt rather then crisp....as a result you will have a weird melted crispy mess in the bottom of the pie plate!!

Flag
lasaf 15 years ago said:

I am certainly not an expert on pie dough, but I use a silicon mat to roll out any dough. Just remember not to cut on it. You can also use it to line cookie sheets to bake cookies. It's my favorite new toy. Alton Brown swears by a French rolling pin It doesn't have any handles. I'm going to try one of them. L.

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

That's a good note about using a cold pie plate. Didn't think of that.

What's the difference between a lightly and heavily floured work surface in amount of flour used?

I do have a heavy hand. I'll try to remember to be light. My used rolling pin might be just the tool to use. It has creases in parts of the pin from using it as a mallet on the back of a knife to help it through frozen items.

The cool work surface is another good point, which begs another question from me. What should the room air temperature be? I ask because as long as the temperature for the day does not get over 95*F, we do not turn the AC on.

Flag
peetabear 15 years ago said:

a lightly floured surface will look like it has a very thin film of flour on it .. it will look like looking through a sheer white curtain... if it starts to stick just add a little more flour...

the air temperature is not as important if you ice down the rolling surface and have a cold rolling pin and pie plate.... make sure to work quickly and get the crust back in the refrigerator...

light hand makes a flaky crust..

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

Bought a rolling mat. It looks slippery enough but I don't think it's teflon. It has size guide rings drawn on it and a whole lot cheaper than the baking/rolling mat I priced the other day.
Yes the dough did start to stick. Floured the surface straightway but didn't bother to clean the stuck dough. Tried rolling the dough again and it was wanting to stick so I aborted the test and tried a different tack.

Bought a cloth rolling surface at the same time I picked up the rolling mat. The idea behind the mat is to saturate it with flour. The flour gets down in the weave and stays there to make it non-stick and not much flour is adsorbed into the dough. So I brought out the cloth and saturated it with flour. The dough rolled out nicely. I kept turning the dough to test how the non-stick feature was working. It worked well until the dough got thin enough where it started tearing out in chunks.

I'm going to give the rolling mat another try and flour it first but I do like the rolling cloth results as far as it went.

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

I know you, peetabear, told me that an old rolling pin works better than a new one but mine has a handle that keeps coming off and I saw a chance to buy a nice looking non-stick rolling pin for less than what a new wooden rolling pin cost. And along with the cloth rolling pad came a sleeve cover for a rolling pin.

Mother was more than willing to trashcan the old pin. The new non-stick pin did start picking up the fat from the dough even the dough did not stick proper. It gave me a chance to slip in the rolling pin sleeve and check it out. It works the same as the cloth mat. Load it up with flour and slip it on the rolling pin.

I like it a lot. The dough never even thought about sticking and there was no flour transported to the dough surface from rolling.

Flag
peetabear 15 years ago said:

I'm glad the new rolling pin and sleeve are working good.... if I ever need a new rolling pin I will keep that in mind...

try rolling a piece of the ' old' dough between the 2 sheets of plastic wrap and see what happens

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

That's how I made my first two successful pies. I was trying this new method to see if it was any easier. It is if I can get the dough to stay together transferring it to the pan.

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

I didn't check the care and feeding instructions for the cloth pastry mat and rolling pin sleeve before I pushed them in the washing machine. The sleeve shrunk about 10% but still fits over the rolling pin. The cloth mat shrunk about 30%. It's still big enough to roll out pie dough on but I'm concerned about its flour holding ability now.

Are the mats and sleeves supposed to be washed? I used cold water and liquid concentrated detergent. Maybe they are meant to be washed then hang dried?

Flag
divaliscious 15 years ago said:

First of all, great group creation points! - I havent yet looked though the threads, will do later, but here are some tips to add.....

I have a marble rolling pin- which almost always stays cool - If you are really going to get into making pies - a large marble slab you can easily pick up at a marble store - think remnants, will not cost you and arm, leg and another pie. Furthermore the marble slab can make fudge, brittle and toffee and is a great large trivet.

..... also keeping flour to minimum really helps keep that pie crust tender and flaky - keep in mind when adding flour to board and to pin - work in short strokes from center to out, turn pin or board around to create your pie shape which should be rolled out to 1/8-1/4 inch thickness...and thicker and you got yourself a thick crust. -

Never roll pin out over the edges, only from the center out...doing so encourages pie dough to break - which you can easily fix by pinching dough together...

The more flour you use, the harder the pie crust will be towards tasting like a concrete mess...

If dough pieces should stick slightly, stop, remove all pie dough from pin, slightly add flour - I usually have a little in my hand and rub hand gently over pin to cover pin with flour...

You can also use a few fingers dipped in water, take broken pieces of pie dough and 'paste' them to the ends.

And I am sure someone has mentioned, the pie dough should be thoroughly chilled before attempting to roll - let it be in the fridge for at least an hour before attempting to roll out.

Several reasons are this: when first mixing the flour, shortening and water - it should just start to clump - I usually then put in wax paper - where it looks barely like dough yet - the chilling process literally brings it all together - the moisture and flour get to know one another and after that one hour, voila - its looking like pie dough. Also by doing it this way, you are not adding any additional water or flour which can create undesirable pie crust results.

I am also not a fan of doing pie dough with a 'cuisant art' - though I will do a version like this at times using the machine - the best in by hand, yes by hand, using a pastry blender which has sharp edges to cut through the flour and shortening - also what kind of shortening are you using????? That too should be as cold as you can get it, along with the water - I use super chilled water - I place ice cubes in my pyrex pitcher, then scoop out the 6 tablespoons needed water - can be less and even can be more.... also what kind of flour are you using????

After when cutting in shortening, you should be sprinkling a tablespoon of water at a time - never all at once...never using a stirring motion. The less you handle the dough in its various forms, will also help create a tender and flaky crust...I will have more secrets later on that...

my version of pie dough:
crisco 2/3 cups (think the white stuff in the can - always kept in fridge)
2 cups all purpose flour, unsifted, unbleached (try heckers)
1 teaspoon salt
ABOUT 6 tablespoons chilled water

sift flour, measure, add salt and sift once more, then add and cut in shortening until it looks like the size of small peas or slightly smaller, then start sprinkling table of water at a time....

Flag
pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

I thought about a stone but my countertop space is at a premium. But if I do go for a stone, it will be a chilled stone, in that, it gets cold water pumped through the stone to keep it chilled.
I do a lot to most all of your suggestions already and have used a food processor as well as a pastry blender to cut the fat into the flour.
Flour is A.P. White Lilly, bleached.
Fat is unsalted butter or butter flavored Crisco shortening. Put the shortening in the freezer for a little bit to firm it up even more before using it in a recipe.
Always make a tumbler of ice water and keep it in the fridge.
Fluff in the water a little at a time if hand fluffing with a fork or slowly stream it in if using a food processor.
The test for enough water is to pinch the crumbly flour mixture, if it holds together there is enough fluid, if it crumbles back out, add a little more fluid.
I've only added the fluid "all at once" if the recipe requires it, and once when I made my first batch of biscuits and learned better.

I do bring the crumbly dough together in a pile, mush it down, and knead it a couple three times just enough to make a cohesive ball and make a round flat disc before wrapping in plastic wrap to chill.

Please write up your pie dough in recipe form and tack it on to this group.

Flag