Pam’s Pie Tutorial! The Pioneer Woman. The following tutorial is from the wonderful Pam Regentin who graced the Lodge with her presence a couple of weekends ago for a pie workshop. Pam inspired everyone in attendance with her pie talents and has now compiled her best instruction and tips for the perfect pie crust.

Follow her directions below…and you’ll be a pie making queen in no time! Or king, if that suits you better.) Thank you, Pam! PIE TUTORIALPie, that icon of American desserts, is a mystery to many people. What makes pie crust flaky? How can the dough be rolled and formed without sticking or tearing?

It’s a shame that pie crust, something with only a few simple ingredients, can cause such fear and trembling in the home baker. Two crust pie used to be ubiquitous on family tables. Whether sweet or savory, pie was a traditional food easily found and universally enjoyed. Why is it becoming so hard these days to find delicious, well- made two crust pie?

Our all- American pastry pie has become a victim in our modern times with the focus on convenience foods and the exodus of home cooks out of the kitchen. Carefully hand- crafted pies have been replaced by factory processed imitations. Fewer and fewer pie makers, the keepers of the pie crafting secrets, are around to pass on the tradition of creating two crust pie. I hope to see a revival of this craft and want to share what I know to further that end. Traditional two crust pie is so much more than a recipe. Pie making is a method. Flour, fat and water must be blended in a just- right combination, using particular techniques to achieve a flaky, tender crust that can encase a myriad of different fillings.

Pie Crust With Lard And Butter In Youtube

Though it sounds mysterious, it truly is not. Once the structure of a good pie dough is understood, the making of it becomes much simpler. Pastry dough should be sturdy enough to hold a filling but tender enough when baked to melt on the tongue with delicate flakes of crust. This is achieved when the flour and fat are in the right ratio with each other. The ratio I use is 2. An addition of salt and sugar for flavor and water to form structural gluten with the flour and you have the building blocks of a good pie crust. It is important for the flour and the fat to be incorporated together in a way that when the dough is rolled out, the bits of fat become stretched out between layers of glutenous flour.

When the fat melts during baking, it leaves the spaces between the flour structures…voila! Flakiness! FATSSo let’s consider fats. Any kind of fat, solid or liquid, can and has been used to make pie crust.

They each have their pros and cons. For the sake of brevity I will tell you what I use and why I use them. Lard. Lard has always been considered the premier fat for producing the best pastries.

This All Butter Pie Crust is my absolute favorite pie crust recipe. It works EVERY time and produces flaky, buttery homemade pie crust that will make your pie recipe. My favorite crust for fruit pies. Always tender and flaky! Makes 1, 9-inch single pie shell. Recipe can be doubled for a double-crust pie. Recipe adapted from the Foolproof Pie Crust originally published by Cook's Illustrated.

These days lard has an undeserved bad reputation. The fact is, it is a natural fat that has been eaten in many cultures, all over the world since the beginning of time. Lard is mostly monounsaturated fat and also has 1. It is also a rich source of vitamin D. Good Sides For Salmon here. Leaf lard is a premium lard, harvested from the kidneys of the pig and has a mild flavor. Chefs everywhere recognize the virtues of lard for baking and cooking.

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in lard with pastry blender until small pea size particles are obtained. Sprinkle with water a little at a time. This delicate, puffy crust uses a combination of lard and butter for the richest flavor and the largest flakes You can substitute more lard for the butter, but you. I am converted!!!! I have been using a pie crust recipe handed down to me from my mother-in-law since I got married. It used lard, so that's all I knew and all I used. This extra flaky gluten free pie crust is made with sour cream, gluten free flour, baking powder and salt, and rolls out beautifully. Your new favorite! Leaf lard has been used for generations by pie makers for light and flakey pastry and is used at many of Kate McDermott's Art of the Pie Workshops. Flaky pie crusts that are pretty close to perfect. Many first prize ribbons in my drawer are due to this recipe. When I was catering fulltime, we made about 6 pies. Mom always knew the best pie crusts are made with lard. The results of this recipe is one of the flakiest crusts I have ever had. It is so easy too!—Virginia Jung.

Unfortunately most lard available in grocery stores has been altered by hydrogenization and adulterated with preservatives. The only health building lard is produced by artisan farmers who make pure lard that must be refrigerated or frozen for storage. It is well worth the effort to seek out sources for this valuable cooking fat. Butter. Butter is also a natural fat, rich in fat- soluble vitamins A, D, E and K as well as important trace minerals. It also has an undeserved reputation as being unhealthy when the reality is that it is a healthy, natural fat.

There are many articles available that bear this up. Recent studies have shown that saturated fats like butter have no link to increased risk of heart disease. Good quality butter will give a pastry crust a rich flavor unparalleled by any other fat. It is not as flaky and tender as lard so if I want a really tender crust I will substitute lard for some of the butter in the recipe.

It is for these reasons that I choose butter and leaf lard for all my pastry crusts. I no longer use any man- made fats because they are all hydrogenated and processed with chemicals that are both unhealthy for me and my family and will leave unsavory flavors in my finished pie. Our pie fats taste test helped us see how the natural flavors of butter and leaf lard were superior to the laboratory produced, artificial flavors of man- made fats. My Recipe for the Perfect Pie Crust. This is the recipe I use. I didn’t invent it.

It can be found in many places and is as old as the hills. Keep in mind that the fat in the recipe can be any kind. Butter or a butter/lard combination can be substituted in any recipe that calls for shortening or other manufactured fat. This is my go- to recipe for a flaky, beautiful two crust pie.

Any time that I want a more sturdy crust, like when making a slab pie or a tart, I will use all butter for a total of one cup per recipe. For a nine inch, two crust pie: 2 ½ cups all purpose or pastry flour. Omit sugar for a savory pie.)¾ cup cold butter, cut into chunks¼ cup cold leaf lard, cut into chunks¼ cup cold water Mix the 2 cups of the flour, salt and sugar together lightly in a mixing bowl or in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and lard chunks and cut into the flour using a pastry cutter or by pulsing the food processor. The mixture should look like large crumbs and begin to cling together in clumps. Add the remaining ½ cup of flour and mix lightly or pulse the processor two or three times. Do not over mix this flour.

It should coat the clumps. Sprinkle the water over the dough and with hands or a wooden spoon mix in until dough holds together. Shape the dough into two discs. Rolling Technique. A traditional method of rolling dough is to flour the rolling surface, the rolling pin and the dough itself. As soon as the dough begins to get sticky, more flour is liberally rained on the surfaces, continually, until the pie circle is complete.

The problem with this method, especially for beginners, is that it is very easy to cause too much flour to be absorbed into the dough, upsetting the delicate balance of flour and fat. When too much flour has been added, the dough becomes dry and difficult to handle.

The final baked crust will also be tough and dry. This is what causes so many to give up on pie crust! The parchment paper technique is what changed my pie making from hair pulling sessions of frustration to successful pie crafting. I have taught this technique to men, women and children with continued success. It is a great joy for me to see someone who has never made a pie or has had limited success with creating pie achieve their goal of a beautiful pie by using this simple method. Using two pieces of parchment paper (or wax paper in a pinch) the dough can be rolled without sticking and transferred to the pie dish without tearing. Because the ratio of flour and fat has been maintained, the baked crust is tender and delicious! Magic Happens. Using two sheets of parchment paper that is at least twelve inches square each, place a disc of dough between them.

If the dough is sticky for any reason, don’t worry. Just sprinkle some flour on the parchment to get started. You shouldn’t have to add much and it will stop sticking.) Starting at the center roll the pin out to the edge. Turn the dough and parchment as necessary and continue rolling, always from the center to the outer edge. The goal is to have a circle shape that will be just slightly larger than the pie dish. After a couple rolls, lift the parchment paper away from the dough to loosen and replace the parchment.

Flip the whole thing and loosen the other paper sheet.