The Man Who Ate Everything - Jeffrey Steingarten [214]
• When acidic steam rises from a fruit filling, the dough also becomes acidic. Its pH falls. Acidic dough has trouble browning. Adding baking soda was once widely recommended as a way to raise the dough’s pH and help it brown. I found that baking soda caused a weird, reddish browning, made for a sandy texture, and left its own identifiable taste.
A recipe finally emerged. It is mainly Marion’s, of course, but it is also mine. By following it, you can make a fine piecrust with just your fingers anywhere in the world. And if you find yourself stranded on a desert island without a rolling pin, Marion says, you can use an old wine bottle that the waves have washed ashore.
Flaky, Tender, and Crisp: Handmade American Pie
Ingredients for a fruit filling (see step 1 in this recipe and the filling recipes that follow)
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (In order of preference, King Arthur, Heckers, Gold Medal, Pillsbury. Measure the flour as Marion did: scoop the flour with a 1-cup measure, press it very lightly into the cup, and level off the excess with the side of your hand. Each cup of flour will weigh 5 ounces or a little more.)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cups shortening (Crisco, butter, lard, or a combination. Crisco works fine; if your kitchen is warm, chill the Crisco for 15 to 30 minutes. For better flavor, substitute 10 tablespoons [1 stick plus 2 tablespoons] cold, unsalted butter for ½ cup of the Crisco. Beat the cold butter with a rolling pin until it is pliable. Home-rendered lard cooled for 3 days—during which time it forms large crystals—and then brought nearly to room temperature is wonderfully savory and makes the flakiest and darkest crust. A lard-and-butter mixture is rich and sweet.)
¾ cup very cold water (a little less if you use butter as part of the shortening, because butter contains water)
1 tablespoon additional shortening, for greasing the pie plate
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, for the filling
1 tablespoon cold skim or whole milk, for brushing the pie
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, for sprinkling the crust
1. Prepare a fruit filling. You may use one of the recipes that follow this one, or your own. All peeling, pitting, soaking, or cooking should be accomplished before you make the crust. But the final steps—for example, the mixing of apple slices or berries with sugar—must be done at the last minute or the bottom crust will overflow with juices before the top crust has been attached. This can make for a messy pie. If you use one of my recipes for fruit filling, please read it now for instructions on timing.
2. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
3. In a large bowl (say 5- or 6-quart capacity) mix the flour, 2 teaspoons sugar, and salt with your fingers.
4. Drop the shortening onto the flour in the bowl. Toss the pieces to coat them with flour, then quickly break them up into about twelve nuggets the size of small walnuts, again tossing gently to coat, and arrange them on the flour in a rough circle about an inch in from the sides of the bowl.
5. Now “rub” the fat into the flour with your fingers. Do it in two stages.
First, scoop the fingers of both hands down along the sides and bottom of the bowl under the flour, and lift them several inches above the rim of the bowl, with a pile of flour and one large chunk of fat in each. Holding your fingers slightly open, lightly rub your thumbs back and forth across your fingertips, about three times, in order to break up the large chunks of fat into pieces the size of small olives while coating them with flour. Do not smear the fat or blend the flour with the fat; do not press down hard with your thumbs; do not flatten the fat. Roll it between your fingertips. Let the flour and fat fall back into the bowl.
Repeat five times, each time breaking up two of the large nuggets of fat, until all of them are gone.
In the second stage, continue scooping up the flour and fat, each time sweeping your thumbs