Pie Crust Needed

Lounge By imacaker Updated 30 Jun 2011 , 4:03am by scp1127

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imacaker Posted 24 Jun 2011 , 1:06am
post #1 of 6

My son directed me to a web-site that showed mini pies on a stick. I am making the cake for my nieces wedding next week. She is having a cake but really LOVES pie. I thought I would suprise her with an assortment of minis, but my crust is to delicate. Does anyone know what I should do?

5 replies
Gawain1974 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Gawain1974 Posted 29 Jun 2011 , 8:34am
post #2 of 6

What do you mean when you say your crust is too delicate? Are you wanting a crust that can withstand being poked through with a stick and still hold together?

Here's a recipe that I use for all my fresh fruit tarts and lemon meringue pies that I bake in a tall tart pan--the crust holds together quite well, even when a 3" tall pie is filled to the top. It's a butter crust, but it's actually based upon a recipe I have for a French butter cookie (that's somewhat similar to one of Julia Child's recipes). You can roll out your scraps, cut them, and bake them like cookies.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup of unsweetened butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg slightly beaten

You can either mix this by hand or use a food processor. When using a food processor, I find that I often need to add some water (a tbs at a time) until the dough forms a ball around the blade. I then wrap it in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. After I roll it out and put it in the pan, I chill it again for another 20 minutes to allow the gluten to rest.

This makes a very thick, cookie-like crust. I prefer my grandma's lard crust recipe for most pies as it's very flaky, but when I want a more solid crust, I always use this one.

Here's a lemon pie I made with this crust. Even with the tall sides, it didn't break apart from the weight of the filling pushing out:

Image

HTH! icon_biggrin.gif

warchild Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
warchild Posted 29 Jun 2011 , 9:00pm
post #3 of 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gawain1974

What do you mean when you say your crust is too delicate? Are you wanting a crust that can withstand being poked through with a stick and still hold together?

Here's a recipe that I use for all my fresh fruit tarts and lemon meringue pies that I bake in a tall tart pan--the crust holds together quite well, even when a 3" tall pie is filled to the top. It's a butter crust, but it's actually based upon a recipe I have for a French butter cookie (that's somewhat similar to one of Julia Child's recipes). You can roll out your scraps, cut them, and bake them like cookies.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup of unsweetened butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg slightly beaten

You can either mix this by hand or use a food processor. When using a food processor, I find that I often need to add some water (a tbs at a time) until the dough forms a ball around the blade. I then wrap it in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. After I roll it out and put it in the pan, I chill it again for another 20 minutes to allow the gluten to rest.

This makes a very thick, cookie-like crust. I prefer my grandma's lard crust recipe for most pies as it's very flaky, but when I want a more solid crust, I always use this one.

Here's a lemon pie I made with this crust. Even with the tall sides, it didn't break apart from the weight of the filling pushing out:

Image

HTH! icon_biggrin.gif


Gawain, your pie photo is huge.. Can you reduce it in size a bit as its causing the page/post, to be huge also. Thanks.

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Gawain1974 Posted 30 Jun 2011 , 12:45am
post #4 of 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by warchild

Gawain, your pie photo is huge.. Can you reduce it in size a bit as its causing the page/post, to be huge also. Thanks.




Sorry, but I can't really do it without messing up the size of the photos on my website where I post all my food pics--I link pics from my photobucket account. I posted a thread in the tech support forum asking about posting pics from 3rd party photo hosting sites.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

howsweet Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
howsweet Posted 30 Jun 2011 , 1:26am
post #5 of 6

Gawain, that is one beautiful pie. And I don't mind sliding the bar to view it at all- it's nice to get a good quality photo that's not fuzzy icon_smile.gif

Marie

scp1127 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
scp1127 Posted 30 Jun 2011 , 4:03am
post #6 of 6

Thanks, Gawain. I have a recipe for a tall pie and this looks like a perfect crust for it. We all strive for that light, flaky crust, but I don't think that will work in a 10 x 3 inch tart pan. This looks like it would work.

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