On Tue 07 Jun 2005 08:28:04a, Dave Smith wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> Peter Aitken wrote:
>
>> A food processor can do an excellent job of making pie crust. As you
>> say it is a labor saver only and not an improvement over hand-made, but
>> used properly it is a valuable tool.
>
> Good luck to you if you can master making pastry with a food processor
> without over processing the dough. I have used one in the past and was
> disappointed with the results. I suppose that it would be a great help
> for someone without much experience making pie dough, but from my
> experience the FP dough just doesn't compare with my hand made dough.
>
> I am not sure about the labour saved either. It takes me less than two
> minutes to cut in the shortening and to stir in the wet ingredients.
> Cleanup is a breeze with a stainless bowl and a fork, but cleaning the
> food processor takes longer than the little bit I saved making the dough
> with it.

I normally make my pie crusts by hand and IMHO that method yields the best
pastry. I have, however, experimented with pastry dough in the FP and had
excellent success. The downside is that it is, indeed, more work and takes
longer. I use both butter and shortening in my crusts and that
necessitated dividing both into tiny bits, then freezing them. The butter,
of course, could be cut into the bits while very cold or slightly frozen.
The shortening had to be portioned out with a spoon into tiny bits, then
frozen. Butter and shortening had to be added and processed into the flour
mixture separately, then the FP with flour/fat mixture had to go into the
freezer for a short period before adding the liquid and forming a mass.

Waaay too much work!

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974


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