Thanksgiving Dinner - Easy As Pie

When it comes to Thanksgiving Dinner, the pie is easy. Let me say it again: making a pie is not difficult, but EASY. Where do you think the expression, "Easy As Pie," came from, anyway?

American cooks have been told a big fat lie, and it's no mystery where it originated. First it was "instant" pie crust mixes, soon replaced by ready-made pie crusts in the freezer case. Never mind the pleasure inherent in manipulating fragrant, pliant dough with your hands, watching it come together into a smooth ball or feeling it surrender beneath the rolling pin. Children still mimic all these actions with glorious Play-Doh, not because they are tedious, but because they are fun.

But, no, American women have been so utterly convinced that these are not pleasures but miserable work, that  the New York Times' food writer Florence Fabricant  assumes that anyone who bakes pie has to fuss and worry over it, then goes on with suggestions, "For those of you who would rather cross the cold Atlantic in a small wooden boat than roll out dough and crimp it. . ."

Oh for heaven's sake, enough!

This sort of nonsense has been around so long that lots of us never learned to roll out a pie crust from Mom or Gramma. So here are step by step directions, with nothing tedious and nothing to fear except calories.  (You'll also find a recipe for Pie Crust made with Lard and an egg on the Pasty page.)

Recipe: Easy Flaky Pie Crust

Don't be alarmed by the length of these directions; I've included every detail I could imagine. The basic proportion of pie crust is 1:3, one part fat to three parts flour. The liquid added to bind those two ingredients together is approximately one half the amount of water. A half teaspoon of salt per cup of flour completes the formula. Double this recipe for  a 10" pie shell or a 2 crust pie.

Keep the fat and water as cold as possible through the process so the particles of fat remain solid as they are mixed with the flour. These solid bits of fat create flakes as the crust bakes.

One 9" Pie Shell
1 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. cold lard or butter, cut into small pieces
2 to 2 1/2 Tbs. very cold water 

Combine flour and salt in bowl or food processor. Add lard or butter, combining with several brief pulses or "cutting" in with a pastry blender.  You can also "cut" fat into flour quite nicely by using two knives with a scissor motion. Whatever tool you use, the idea is to cut the fat into smaller and smaller bits that are thoroughly coated with flour. Different cooks describe the perfect crumbs as any size from cornmeal to small peas.  Size is not as important as keeping the fat in a solid form, not melted into the flour. (Here in Arizona, that can sometimes be difficult.)

Sprinkle 1 Tbs. very cold water over the crumbly mixture and toss lightly with a fork. Repeat with the second Tbs. If the dough does not hold together when pressed with the fork, add more water bit by bit, sprinkling it on the driest part of the dough.

Gather the dough together into a ball with your hands and flatten into a fat disk. At this point you can wrap the dough in plastic and chill for half an hour or for several days.

Dust the counter or pastry sheet and rolling pin with flour, and have the pie pan sitting close by. Place the disk of dough on the work surface and dust the top with flour. Begin rolling from the center outward, frequently turning and dusting the disk to keep it from sticking to the work surface. Press together cracks that open around the edges. You can also roll the crust between sheets of waxed paper: moisten the work surface to prevent the paper from sliding, then dust the wax paper and disk of dough. Place a second sheet of waxed paper on top of the dough, and roll from the center outward.

Roll the crust about 1/8 inch thick, or about the thickness of a piece of leather, and three inches bigger than your pie pan. (You want an 12" circle of dough for a 9" pie.) If the dough sticks to the work surface, loosen it with a metal spatula. Rest the rolling pin in the middle of the dough. Lift half the crust and fold it gently over the rolling pin, then use the pin to help lift the rest of the dough and transfer it to the pie pan. Hold the rolling pin just above the center of the pie pan and unroll the crust. Press together any cracks in the dough with your fingers - they will never show.

Crimping the edge is no more difficult than playing with Play-Doh. Trim the crust about half an inch or more beyond the rim of the pan, and fold the excess underneath so you have a double layer of dough around the edge. Have fun, making ridges and dents by pressing your thumbs and forefingers around the edge. Or press the dough alternately with a fork and a spoon. If you don't like your design, press it out and try again. It's just dough.

Now, you can prick the crust all over at 1/2" intervals and bake it as it is, 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Cool, then fill it with ice cream or other yummy stuff.  Or, fill it with just about any fruit that has been sliced and tossed with half a cup of sugar and two tablespoons flour. (Well, practically any fruit. Watermelon or bananas would not be good choices.) 

Now, doesn't that pie shell look pretty in that photo, all smooth with a pretty crimped edge? Actually, after I had lifted it onto the rolling pin, the darn thing fell completely apart before I could get it over the pie pan.

If my mother had been standing over my shoulder, I might have burst into tears. But I was alone in the kitchen, so I picked up the pieces (they fell on the counter, not on the floor) and patched them together in the pie pan, mushing the dough around until it was fairly even and smooth.

Another approach would be to press the dough into a ball again and just roll it out a second time. Either way works, and as Julia Child might say, no one needs to know what happened in the kitchen. Your finished product will taste better than any pre-made frozen pie crust.

The test is in the tasting. And at the end of your marvelous home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner, you can assure all your guests that it was as easy as pie.