For this Thanksgiving, I'm venturing into the world of pie making. I'm talking real pie, with homemade pie crust. Yes, I make this lighter chocolate pudding pie on occasion and I've ventured into the world of tarts. I even made a sweet potato pie a couple of years ago but those pies use a graham cracker crust, which, to me, doesn't quite seem like an authentic pie.
I guess the reason I haven't made pie before is, well, I don't like them much. I like a flaky pie crust but I'm not a big fan of fruit desserts (or maybe I just haven't tried enough of them); you know I'm all about the chocolate. But I'm expanding my horizons while staying true to what I love. So this Thanksgiving, I'm giving pie a try. I'm going to make pumpkin pie and chocolate pudding pie. I hope they turn out and I'm curious as to which will be more popular at the Thanksgiving table. But before all that happens, I'm starting with the pie dough - an all butter one.
I learned that making a pie crust is harder than it looks and definitely takes practice! But done right, the recipe is quite simple (particularly when you use a food processor, in my case) and the dough takes less a few minutes to make.
I've got to tell you that this was actually my second batch of pie dough and the one I made using the food processor. The first time, I got a little too ambitious and thought I could make the dough by hand. After reading so much about the importance of not over-incorporating the butter so that the crust bakes up nice and flaky, I completely under-mixed and ended up with large lumps of butter in my dough. I knew it wasn't right and started reading disaster stories of butter popping out of the crust in the oven when baking because the butter wasn't incorporated enough. The next morning, I threw that batch out and started anew in the food processor. I'm so glad I did! The result of the second batch felt and looked so different from the first. This one is well mixed but I can still see small specks of butter throughout, which is how it should be.
I've got to tell you that this was actually my second batch of pie dough and the one I made using the food processor. The first time, I got a little too ambitious and thought I could make the dough by hand. After reading so much about the importance of not over-incorporating the butter so that the crust bakes up nice and flaky, I completely under-mixed and ended up with large lumps of butter in my dough. I knew it wasn't right and started reading disaster stories of butter popping out of the crust in the oven when baking because the butter wasn't incorporated enough. The next morning, I threw that batch out and started anew in the food processor. I'm so glad I did! The result of the second batch felt and looked so different from the first. This one is well mixed but I can still see small specks of butter throughout, which is how it should be.
