Marie Callender's pie crust

[Wurzig]

I just buy frozen M C. deep dish pie dough/pans and call it even.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by princessvanessa

I found the following recipe online. I knew about adding vinegar to pastry but I think that the half butter half shortening, teaspoon of sugar and the egg yolk is what makes the difference. Give this recipe a try and see if you like it:

Thanks for posting this. it's a good recipe. I noticed a couple of slight adjustments and notes I'd make to improve on it a little: I've added my notes in Red

1/2 cup butter - For a really flaky crust, more like French puff pastry, you can go to all butter.
1/2 cup shortening - If using Crisco, make sure it's fresh. Like all fats and oils, shortening will oxidize over time, and become rancid. Good shortening should not have any off-odors. *See my post about shortening choices

1 1/2 cups flour - Should be Pastry Flour - See my previous post
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons ice water
1/2 teaspoon vinegar - Plain white vinegar. Or lemon juice. You won't taste it, but the acid helps keep gluten from forming so the crust stays tender.

Beat together the butter and shortening until smooth and creamy and chill until firm. - I skip the blending because I find it unnecessary. But separate or blended, chilling until firm is critical. Matter of fact, if I'm planning to use my food processor to mix the dough, I cut the butter and shortening into cubes and freeze them overnight

Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. - Check

Using a fork, cut the butter and shortening into the dry ingredients, until the mixture has a consistent texture. - This is difficult to do with a regular kitchen fork, so invest a few bucks in a blending fork, which is more robust and has wider tines that work well for pie dough. Or get a dough blender, which is even more robust, allowing you to get your weight into the cutting and mixing action.

The key thing at this stage is not to overmix the dough. You don't want it smooth... no, no, no... just uniformly mixed to a kind of crumbly, sandy texture that will just barely hang together when squeezed between your fingers. The texture will develop more after resting and rolling out. If using a food processor, use the regular cutting blade (works great on those frozen butter chunks) and blend in very short pulses, using a spatula to dig out the corners every few pulses. this goes very fast, so stay alert for the crumbly texture stage. I stop when the globs are about pea size or a little smaller.

Stainless Steel Blending Fork | Sur La Table
OXO Good Grips Dough Blender with Blades: Amazon.com: Kitchen & Dining

Mix egg yolk, ice water, and vinegar into the dough, then form it into a ball and refrigerate it for 1 hour so that it will be easier to work with. - You want to allow the dough to rest a bit before rolling out, and quite cold. You do not want the butter or shortening to melt at all at this stage. Instead, you want the sold globs to spread out so they separate the dough into layers.

The key in all of this is keeping everything cold, so the shortening spreads out in thin layers, rather than melting and soaking into the dough as it later will do in the oven. Also avoid over-mixing the dough. A light touch is the right touch.

[OpenD]

There are basically three key shortenings to choose from for making pastry... butter, vegetable shortening, or lard. Several factors affect your choice, including cost, suitability and flavor.

Let's start with the least known by the average home cook today... but still highly treasured by professional bakers... lard. Pure rendered pork fat, it's a white solid with a low melting temperature which can usually be found in cakes or tins in the refrigerated meat case, or sometimes dairy case, in your supermarket. If you don't see it, ask the butcher. The very top quality, and the most expensive, is called leaf lard, and it is superior for making tender pie crusts. People are often surprised to discover it does not have much taste or smell of its own.

Obviously lard is not for the vegetarian or anyone with a religious prohibition against eating pork, but for others, making pie crusts with lard can be a real revelation... providing a missing link back to flavors and textures from your grandmother's cooking.

Vegetable shortening, most famously Crisco brand, is imitation lard. Originally Cristallized Cottonseed Oil, it was invented as part of a process to turn vegetable oil into a waxy solid, for use in candles and soaps. Then they realized it could be sold as a low-cost shortening, and began selling it to housewives as Crisco in 1911. Today it is primarily hydrogenated soybean oil. Odorless and tasteless, shelf stable at room temperatures, it's popular... despite the fact that it is the least effective shortening.

Butter is prized for delicate pastries because it has a feature the other two lack... it is only 80% fat, and 20% water, whereas lard and Crisco are all fat. So when it is spread out between thin layers of dough, as in puff pastry, the fat melts and separates the layers, while the water turns to steam and pushes the layers apart, creating a light, fluffy pastry or crust. This is why you can replace a half butter/ half Crisco mix with all butter much more successfully than you can replace it with all Crisco. The latter will turn out much denser and tougher.

And to round out my little trifect of pie crust comments, here are some great additional pie crust tips:

Perfect Pie Crust Recipe | Simply Recipes

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Padgett2

I have heard that using lard and having it cold makes the flakiest crusts. I know you also have to handle it fast and get it into the oven quickly.

Very true: lard and I do use a little butter, makes the best crust. You can mix it all you want until you add that little bit of water, then fast is the secret...and yes, cold. I use ice water....

[rural chick]

Years and years ago I bought a Tupperware Rolling Pin in which you put lots of ice/water in the middle. It works for me! I will never part with mine. And when I find them at garage sales I buy them so I will always have one.