Thursday, October 31, 2013

Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting



"Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
     
 -Lauren DeStefano - Wither



It's fall! Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. Where does the time go?


My mashed sweet potatoes
 
As a child, one of my favorite foods at Thanksgiving was the sweet potato casserole. You know the kind. Mashed up sweet potatoes loaded with brown sugar and butter, smothered with those little marshmallows.
 


My dry ingredients on the right, waiting to be mixed with in with everything else.

These cupcakes are my homage to that classic dish.


Before going in the oven - I used mini panettone cups instead of cupcake cups, whatever cups you use, greaseproof is best.

Moist and fluffy cupcakes are loaded with sweet potatoes, filled with yummy, warm, fall spices. The cake tastes like a cross between pumpkin cake and spice cake. The sweet potatoes in the cupcakes aren't used just for flavor, they happen to add to the cakes lightness and moisture level. White potatoes are often used to give baked goods these qualities. I even made a delicious Chocolate Farmhouse Cake that is filled with white potatoes.


The frosting recipe calls for cream of tartar, it helps the meringue become meringue. If you can't find it, it's o.k. to leave it out.
 
The frosting is a fluffy, light and sticky marshmallow frosting, that is broiled for a toasty marshmallow flavor. This kind of frosting is sometimes called a 7 minute frosting.
 

To make the frosting you need to have the bowl of your stand mixer sit over a saucepan filled with a few inches of water.


Seven minute frosting gets it's name because it takes about 7 minutes to whip egg whites into meringue, basically what the frosting is. I really like this frosting. It's actually something I use often since I always have the ingredients on hand, basically just egg whites, sugar and vanilla.


 

I used my handy point and shoot thermometer to make sure I got my mixture to the correct temperature, you don't need a thermometer for this recipe, you just cook it until it's hot. But I love using this thing, I highly recommend getting one if you do a lot of cooking. It's a breeze to take the temperature when making a caramel, or when frying to get the oil to the correct temperature.


I also like it because it can be whipped up quickly, and it compliments most cake recipes.


Beat the meringue until glossy, stiff peaks form - Note - this picture is showing a half recipe of frosting, a full recipe will fill the bowl.

It doesn't need to be toasted, but for this recipe, I highly recommend it. The toasted sticky marshmallow frosting and this cupcake just go amazingly together.



You don't even really need to toast these if you don't want to. If you leave them as is, they will be a fluffy marshmallow frosting or sometimes called a 7 minute frosting, because it takes about 7 minutes to beat.


These would sure compliment a Thanksgiving dessert table nicely. The classic combination of nostalgic flavors will make your guests smile.



Nice and toasty right from the oven.



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Beige vintage fall leaves tablecloth, Anchor Hocking amber cake stand circa 1960, Paragon "Melanie Rose"fine china vintage plates, tan damask vintage dinner napkins, Fenton Silver Crest milk glass candle holders, and Noritake M "The Vitry" teacups circa 1918, available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.


Take 20% off anything at House of Lucien by using coupon code, ALCHEMY at checkout!




Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted
Marshmallow Frosting

Makes about 24 cupcakes

An original recipe by me, Melissa aka The Alchemist

** Note** These cupcakes after being frosted need to be served the same day. This type of frosting doesn't keep well. Serving them within a 3-4 hours is best, so plan accordingly. The cupcakes, unfrosted can last longer, as I noted below in the recipe.

Also you may need to double the frosting recipe to get as much frosting as I have on each cupcake. But! You can only make one batch at a time, because that is how much frosting can fit in the bowl of a stand mixer. Just be prepared and know you may need to make a second batch. If you use less frosting this amount may be enough.

Ingredients for Cupcakes

32 oz. sweet potatoes or yams (to equal 2 cups (536 g.) mashed after cooking)

2 3/4 cups (377 g.) all purpose flour

4 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground allspice

1/2 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (190 g.) white sugar

1 cup packed (185 g.) brown sugar

1 cup (237 ml) vegetable oil

1 cup (216 g.) yogurt - I used Greek yogurt, full fat or low fat is fine, don't use nonfat

4 eggs

3 tsp. vanilla extract


Ingredients for Frosting

10 large egg whites

2 cups (380 g.) white granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar - This helps with the stability and volume of meringue, if you don't have this, or can't find it, it's o.k. to leave it out, but I do recommend it, especially if you are new to making a meringue.

1/8 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions for Cupcakes

First cook the sweet potatoes. You can do this step a day or up to 3 days in advance. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, 200 degrees Celsius, or Gas Mark 6. Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes and pierce them a few times with a fork or a knife. Bake them in the preheated oven until they are soft, about 1 hour. Alternately, you can cook them in the microwave. Wash them and pierce them, and cook them for 8-10 minutes or until tender, turning them over once during cooking. Let them cool, then peel and mash them to equal 2 cups mashed or 536 g.

Start on the cupcakes - Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 4.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in another large bowl with a hand mixer, mix together the 2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes, the oil and the white sugar and brown sugar, beat it until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating in between each addition. Scrape down the bowl and add the vanilla and the yogurt and beat it until everything is incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and beat until it is mixed together well, without over beating.

Fill cupcake cups 2/3 - 3/4 of the way full. I used miniature panettone cups I bought at Sur La Table. Whatever type you use, the greaseless cupcake liners are best, since all of my recipes have a high liquid and high oil content, if you use regular cupcake papers they may be greasy or oily on the bottoms, if you use the greaseless kind, that becomes a non issue.

Bake for 22-28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes before frosting them.

Cupcakes can be stored unfrosted for 2 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Or freeze them by wrapping them in plastic wrap then placed in a ziptop bag that is airtight. They can be frozen for 6 months at least, if wrapped well.


Directions for Frosting

Place the broiler on your oven on high and arrange a rack in the middle of the oven. Or alternately, you can use a kitchen torch, if you are using a torch, obviously don't preheat your broiler.

Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of water and bring to a simmer. The saucepan needs to be a size that hold the bowl of your stand mixer on top of it, like a double boiler. (I have this pictured above.) When it starts to boil turn it down to medium. Put the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and salt in a clean bowl (the bowl needs to be very clean, there can't be any bit of grease in it or your meringue won't work) of a stand mixer and whisk by hand to combine. Place the bowl over the saucepan (make sure the water doesn't touch the bowl) and cook, whisking constantly until the sugar has dissolved and it is hot to the touch (about 120 degrees Fahrenheit, 48 degrees Celsius) on an instant read thermometer, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the bowl to the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium for 2 minutes then turn up the mixer to medium high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 5 minutes more. You need to beat it on medium first, if you were to just beat it on high for the entire time the meringue can become dry, so it's best to gradually bring it up to the medium high speed and not just beat it on high the entire time. Add the vanilla and whisk until it's incorporated.

Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe the frosting on the cupcakes.

Broil the tops to make them toasted. If using a kitchen torch, torch the tops until they are slightly brown and toasted. If using the oven, place the frosted cupcakes onto a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Place it on the middle rack of the oven. Broil them for 20-30 seconds, or just until they get brown and toasty. *** THIS IS IMPORTANT*** These can go from being done to burnt in what seems like a second. so don't walk away. Just stand there, even if you hold open the door to the oven slightly, to see what's going on, or you can set a timer for 20 seconds, then check them and see if they are toasted. Toast them until the tops are toasted lightly. It's better to keep checking them, than having them burn and have to start over.

Serve them within 3-4 hours of making them. If you must store a few cupcakes overnight, do so at room temperature in an airtight container. The trouble with storing them is, if you trap a moist cupcake in an airtight environment it's going to make the meringue which needs to be kept dry, wet. So overnight or the next day, the meringue will start to "sweat" or weep, get moist and start to fall off the cupcakes. Or if you were to keep them out in the open with air circulation, the cupcakes will dry out.


I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! Happy Baking!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Double Crust Peach Pie with Fresh Peaches



"Candy might be sweet, but it’s a traveling carnival blowing through town. Pie is home. People always come home.”

- Pushing Daisies



I don't bake a lot of pies. If you are familiar with this blog, then you know this. There are not a lot of pie recipes here. In fact I only recently posted a pie crust recipe, which is amazing by the way, if you haven't checked it out.


My peeled peaches, done by dropping them in boiling water for 30 seconds, then put in an ice water bath. The peels just slip right off.
 
That's just the thing, though. I need for a recipe to be amazing. Many pies are not amazing to me, so why bother?  But here's the thing. Other people love pie. I need to make a pie sometimes. Upon request, or at the holidays. So I want to make a good one. Call me a people pleaser.
 
 

My peach peels and pits. Did you know you can make peach jelly with just the peels and seeds?

I don't know if you could call this recipe amazing. It's a pretty straightforward peach pie. I think the job of a summer fruit pie recipe, peach or berry, should be to just highlight the ripe fruit. To put it up on a pedestal and shine a really flattering light on it. Which this recipe does nicely. If you use my crust recipe, it will be encased in a super buttery and flaky pastry, so it will be a pretty darned delicious pie.


My pie ready for the oven

Peaches are one of my very favorite fruits. So if I'm going to make pie, or eat pie, peaches is a good choice for me. I like my peach pie to be pretty classic. I don't like cinnamon or nutmeg in there. I just want good old ripe peaches mixed with sugar and just a bit of lemon juice. You can't really taste the lemon juice, it just adds a bit of contrast to all of that sweet. And your peaches do need to be ripe. Your peaches should be juicy, sweet, and delicious on their own.


Here is the best way to use leftover pie crust. Make pie crust sticks, of course! Especially if you are using my Delicious All butter pie crust. Just sprinkle on some sugar and bake until puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

I used flour as the thickener for this pie. I made a few different versions of this pie and I liked flour the best. Cornstarch seems a little too gel -y, and tapioca is just too well, tapioca - like for me. I don't want those little pearls in my pie. I just want a straight up delicious, old fashioned peach pie, darn it.

The one thing I don't like about flour as a thickener is that it looks a little cloudy in the pie. That is the only caveat, in my opinion.


Golden Brown and delicious


With the holidays around the corner, I see more pie in my future. That should make the people around me happy. And it makes me happy to make them happy.

 
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Tan Vintage Damask Dinner Napkins, Vintage Copper Kettle, Vintage Arthur Wood Mug, Heritage Hall English Transferware Plate, and Old Ivory Syracuse China Dessert Plates available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.





Double Crust Peach Pie With Fresh Peaches


Ingredients

Pie Crust for a 8 inch deep dish pie or a 9 inch Pie Try my recipe for The Best All Butter Pie Crust Recipe If you are using my pie crust recipe, please follow the directions in that recipe along with these instructions.

1 egg white beaten with a teaspoon of water

5 cups (980 g.) or 2 pounds, 3 oz. sliced and peeled ripe peaches

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup (70 g.) all purpose flour

1 cup (200 g.) white sugar

2 Tablespoons butter

additional sugar for topping the pie

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, 200 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 6. Place a cookie sheet covered in foil in the oven to preheat. ** Read the recipe before making, if you are using my pie crust recipe don't preheat the oven now, do it later after freezing or refrigerating the prepared pie.

Line the bottom and sides of pie plate (glass or pyrex is best) with the crust. Brush the bottom of the crust with some of the beaten egg white, this will help keep it from getting soggy while baking.

Place the sliced peaches in a large bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Toss it gently. Mix together the flour and the sugar in another bowl. Pour over the peaches and mix gently. Pour into the pie crust and dot with butter. Cover with the other pie crust, and fold the edges under. Flute the edges to seal or press the edges with the tines of a fork dipped in egg. Brush the remaining egg white over the top crust and sprinkle it with sugar. Cut several slits in the top crust to vent steam.

***If you are using my pie crust recipe, or a homemade recipe, at this point I would recommend freezing or refrigerating the pie at this point for 30-60 minutes. To help calm the gluten in the flour after rolling. If you are using a frozen pie crust you don't need to do this. After doing that, if you haven't preheated the oven yet, do it now.

Place the pie on the preheated cookie sheet. Place it on one of the lower racks in the oven. This will help cook the bottom crust, so it doesn't get soggy.

Bake for about an hour. Check the pie after about 40 minutes to make sure the edges aren't getting too browned. If they are cover them with foil. It's done when the top and bottom is browned.

Let cool slightly on a wire rack. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.


Happy Baking!

Sunday, October 6, 2013

The Best All Butter Pie Crust Recipe




“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”   
-  David Mamet, Boston Marriage



 
Pie crust, it may be one of the least homemade baked goods out there. Almost every recipe for a pie you come across calls for a frozen pie crust. I guess they know no one wants to go to the trouble to make one. And why should you make a homemade pie crust? It does take some work, and time. And for what? There needs to be a payoff for all of that labor.


 
Cutting up the butter
 
 
There are just some things that you can't buy in a grocery store. If you cook anything from scratch, you know what I'm talking about. Some things can only be made by your hands. And then, there are times you want the very finest, the crème de la crème. Like on Thanksgiving or Christmas, where you don't want anything but the very best.
 
 
 
This is what it looks like when it's done, when it just sticks together
 
Well, this is the best. Let me tell you a story. Just a few days ago, we ate dinner at a popular pie place in Seattle. The crust was so flaky, I mean the texture was just amazing, it melted in your mouth. But it had no flavor. I thought for sure it was made with all shortening. I asked, and it turns out it was made with lard. No biggie. That's fine with me, I'm not against lard, (vegetarians don't appreciate it, since they can't even have a piece of apple pie, since the crust is made of pig fat, but I digress.) But, I am against food that has no flavor. I mean it had a little taste, but not much. So my husband and I debated. What's more important? Flavor or flakiness?
 


Right out of the food processor

My husband says flavor, by a mile. He actually didn't love that pie crust no matter how flaky it was. He said when he got a bite of just crust, it dried out his mouth it was so flaky. Like he had a mouth full of sand. For myself, on the other hand, I was still debating it in my mind. For days, in fact.


After refrigerating, ready to roll out


Meanwhile, I was baking pies. I baked a lot of em. I made a version of this pie crust many times. I also made a shortening and butter combined crust a few times, which is the pie crust I usually make. The combined (shortening and butter) crust is a crust I've made a lot of times, but I was still on the fence about it. It just didn't excite me.


Tuck the top crust over the bottom crust, crimp, then make sure the crust stays inside the pie plate, or you risk it hanging over when it bakes. Also brushing the crust with egg white and giving it a sprinkle of sugar helps to get it nice and golden brown.

After lots of pie baking (and eating) and after giving it much thought, here's what I concluded. A crust full of lots of butter is the best. It's the best taste, by a long shot. But that's no surprise is it? This crust has a lot of butter in it. So with all of that fat, this crust is flaky. It's not as flaky as a crust with all lard, or shortening. The reason being is that those fats are 100% fat. Butter has some water content, it's not 100% fat. But no matter. This crust is almost like puff pastry. Not like that puff pastry you get in the grocery that's full of oils, but real, all butter puff pastry you would have to get from a specialty shop or make yourself. A few times when my husband and I took a bite, we even compared the taste to that of a croissant. Yeah, that's how delicious this crust is.

In fact, my husband, not a big dessert fan, loved and devoured the pies I baked with this crust. I needed to make a dessert for an event of his we were going to, and I thought he had decided on one. After eating these pies he changed his mind, all because he couldn't get enough of this butter filled pie dough.


Make sure the crust is inside the pie plate after crimping.
 
This crust rules over all others in the taste department, but it acts different than a typical pie crust. Call it a pie crust, or call it a pastry, remember how I said it's like puff pastry? Well it does puff up. It doesn't keep it's shape very well. So if you want to cut out shapes of leaves to put on top of your pie, or do a really decorative border, this probably isn't the recipe for you. There are a few tips to using this crust, (below in the recipe) to make it behave for you, that do need your attention. 
 

Here's what you do with leftover pie crust. You make pie crust sticks! Just sprinkle pie dough with sugar, slice and bake until browned.

But don't let that scare you. I used to be one of those people. One of those indifferent slackers who used premade pie crusts. The times I made a homemade one, was on holidays, or when I was feeling particularly domestic. I never wanted to. I didn't know a pie crust could taste like this. But now that I've made like, 10 pies in the last few weeks, I feel like Betty Crocker, or better yet, Lionel Poilâne. I feel like a magician, capable of transforming an often overlooked dessert into something so delicious, I would be proud to serve it to Gordon Ramsay. I actually have this recipe memorized. By the time I finished my last pie, I felt so exhilarated, I felt like I could challenge Bobby Flay to a pie crust throwdown.


Golden brown and delicious


But this is true for almost anything in life, isn't it? First you have a desire to be good at something. You research, and you learn as much as you can about it, to give yourself a good fighting chance. Then you do it. Then you do it again, and again. You make mistakes, but you learn from them,  and you don't get discouraged, because you want this. Then you actually get pretty darn good at it. The result? A skill you will have for the rest of your life. A skill that will make people love you (trust me on this.) A skill that will warm the hearts of your friends and family. A skill that will open peoples minds to how amazing a simple American staple like pie, can taste. That is a skill worth having, and time well spent, in my book. Now that is exciting.



Here's what you have to watch out for with this recipe, pie crust that hangs down. You need to tuck the pie crust in, so that when it bakes, it doesn't hang over the sides, like mine did here. The first time I made this crust I wasn't careful with this, and I had lots of hanging pie crust.

 
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Baking the pie in a glass pie plate and following a few simple steps, really does away with a soggy pie crust.

 
Tips for successful pie making:

Make sure to read the recipe all the way through before making.

The dough can be made days in advance and then kept in the fridge, plan accordingly. It also freezes well for months. Just double wrap it in plastic wrap, then place it in a zip top bag with the air removed. Let it thaw in the fridge and proceed with the recipe.

Add as little water as possible to the dough.

Mix it as little as possible in the food processor, meaning just pulse it, as few times as needed. Overworking the gluten in the flour makes a crust tough.

Refrigerating and freezing the dough when called for in the recipe allows the gluten to relax after being worked, which is going to contribute to a flakier crust as well as giving you less shrinkage when baking.

Use rice flour when rolling out the dough. This isn't absolutely necessary, but when rolling out pie dough, you want to use as little flour as possible so you don't work in too much of it, which can lead to a tough crust. If you use rice flour instead, you don't need to worry about working in too much flour, since rice flour has no gluten. Just roll out dough like you usually would, only substituting rice flour with all purpose.

Use a glass (or Pyrex) pie plate. This helps the bottom crust cook. Glass is a good conductor of heat. This will help the bottom crust to cook, and not be soggy. Actually if you preheat a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven, then put your pie in a glass pie plate on the preheated sheet in a lower rack in the oven, this will give your bottom crust a head start in cooking.

Brush the top of your unbaked pie with egg white and sprinkle with sugar (don't use sugar if making a savory pie, only use the egg white) to get it nice and golden brown.

Brush the bottom of your pie crust with egg white before filling it, to prevent sogginess, it will form a barrier between the filling and the crust.

Bake a fruit pie at 400-425 degrees Fahrenheit, (200-220 degrees Celsius) (Gas Mark 6 or 7) in a lower rack in your oven. It takes about an hour for a double crust fruit pie. If the crust gets too brown before the time is up, cover the crust with foil. If it's not getting brown enough, about 15 minutes before it's done put it on a top rack in the oven to brown.

Freeze your pie (or at least refrigerate it) for about an hour after filling and before baking it. This will help calm the gluten as well as help prevent shrinking.




Peach Pie - one of the pies I made with this crust
 
Tan Vintage Damask Dinner Napkins, Vintage Copper Kettle, Vintage Arthur Wood Mug, Heritage Hall English Transferware Plate, and Old Ivory Syracuse China Dessert Plates available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.


The Best All Butter Pie Crust Recipe





This recipe is my own. It started as an adaptation from Ann Burrell's Pie Dough Recipe as well as a few ideas from America's Test Kitchen, mixed with knowledge I've learned over the years, combined with experience.

This recipe makes enough for 2 crusts, for an 8 or 9 inch pie, or one double crust pie. If you only need one crust, for a pumpkin pie, or a cream pie, freeze the other half, or simply halve the recipe. The dough will last for months frozen if double wrapped and then placed in a zip top bag and sealed. Simply thaw it in the fridge and continue with the directions from there.

This recipe contains vodka. Americas test kitchen is famous for using it in their pie crust. Their recipe uses more than mine, and their recipe is different. I've taken the idea from them. The reason it is a great element for a pie crust, is because gluten forms in water but not in alcohol. In a pie crust recipe you want to use the least amount of water as possible, but sometimes this makes it hard to roll out. By using a little alcohol it makes it easier to work with, without adding water, since the alcohol cooks out and leaves no taste. If you absolutely do not consume alcohol go ahead and leave it out, you may need to use a tablespoon or 2 more ice water.

Vinegar is used in the recipe because it helps prevent the formation of gluten, which will ultimately make for a flakier crust, you can't taste it since it is just a teaspoon.

Using the best quality butter you can get your hands on is a good idea here, since the butter is the star ingredient.

Ingredients

2 1/2 sticks (20 Tablespoons) or (285 g.) of very cold good quality butter, cut into small pieces then held in the fridge to get it cold again,  plus extra for greasing the pie plate

2 cups (268 g.) all purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough OR use rice flour for rolling

rice flour for rolling out dough, optional

2 Tablespoons sugar - omit if you are making a savory pie, like a pot pie

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons cold vodka

5-7 Tablespoons ice cold water


Directions

Get your ingredients ready. Get your food processor out.  Have the butter cut into small pieces, then placed in the fridge until needed. Have a cup of water with a few ice cubes in it next to your food processor to use as your ice water. Make sure your vodka is cold.

In the bowl of the food processor add the flour, sugar and salt and blend together. Take the butter pieces out of the fridge and add about half of it to the food processor. Pulse it a few times to get the butter mixed in, then add the other half of the butter. Pulse the butter into the flour until it resembles little pieces of grated cheese. Now remove the lid of the food processor and sprinkle on the vodka, and the apple cider vinegar, plus 2 Tablespoons of ice water. Pulse it again a few times to get it mixed in. Then add 2 more tablespoons of ice water and pulse until it's blended in. The goal is to work the dough as little as possible, so just pulse it as few times as needed to get it to be mixed together. Only add enough water to get the dough to stick together. Add as little as possible. Remove the lid of the food processor and pinch it together to see if it sticks together. If it needs more water, if it's not sticking together, add a tablespoon at a time, pulse, then check it again.

When it's ready, dump out the contents onto a work surface such as a big cutting board. Form it into a flat disc with your hands, then cut it in half and flatten each disc, this will make it easier to roll out later. I weigh each one with a scale to make sure I've divided them in two equal portions. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap then refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to days in advance.

When ready to use the dough, remove it from the fridge for about 20 minutes, to let it get soft enough to roll. Dust the work surface and the dough with flour (or rice flour, as mentioned above.) Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough, evenly in all directions. Turn the dough a 1/4 of a turn after each roll to get it as even in all directions as possible. If it gets tacky, use a little more flour, don't let it stick to your work surface. Roll out the dough until it's about 1/8 of an inch thick.

Grease your glass pie plate (an 8 or 9 inch) with butter and place the rolled out dough in the plate. It should hang over at least a 1/2 inch, if it hangs out more than that, cut it to 1/2 inch overhang. Fill the pie and bake as directed in your recipe.

*This is an important step* After you've filled your pie, you need to tuck the top crust under the bottom crust, then crimp together. Make sure the crust is not hanging over the edge. Make sure after you have crimped it together that it is inside the pie plate. When the crust bakes, if it's hanging over the edge, it will fall down over the edge of the pie plate and hang over. If making a fruit pie, make sure the edges are sealed, so the juices don't go running out of the edge. Make sure you cut vent holes on the top.

If you are making a single crust pie, just make sure when you crimp the edges so that they stay inside the pie plate, not hanging over the edge.

To blind bake for a single crust pie: Line the dough with parchment paper and fill with pie weights, raw rice, or dried beans. Bake in a preheated 425 degrees F oven for 10 to 12 minutes, remove the parchment and beans and bake for 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove the pie shell from the oven and cool. The dough should be golden and crisp. Continue with desired filling.


I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!
Happy Baking!