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at Thu, 08 Sep 2005 21:07:23 GMT in
.com>,
(Myraide) wrote :
>
>Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Wed 07 Sep 2005 06:18:35p, Myraide wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>>
>> > hi, just read the thread here about *pie crust help*. wish i had
>> > read it two days ago! 
>> >
>> > i attempted to make the dough, and used two cubes of organic butter
>> > and four oz of organic coconut butter from a jar, it is solid at
>> > room temp.
2 cubes? By that do you mean 16 tbsp (8 oz), 2 lbs (if what you had were solid
1-lb bricks), or 1 lb (i.e. 2 8 oz cubes)? If the first, which I think is the
most likely, that would have been 12 oz fat to 3 cups (about 13.5 oz) flour - a
little light on the fat but not too bad. If one of the latter cases, however,
you had considerably more - way too much in the second case.
>> > but i didnt realize everything had to be COLD so i had the butter
>> > and coconut butter at room temp and mixed by hand into three cups
>> > flour. needless to say, it was a gooey mess, so i added another cup
>> > of flour, and left out the water,...
So adding another cup of flour would get you to about 18 oz flour, (presumably)
12 oz fat. That's lean for pie crust. As has been pointed out, by this point it
was entirely immaterial because the fats had melted into and incorporated with
the fat, which is what must be avoided at all costs in piecrust.
>> > can it be salvaged or toss and start again? it has been in the
>> > fridge since last night. myraide
>>
>> Honestly? I would toss it and start over with both butters being
>> cold...
>
>ok i see my major mistake. not having EVERYTHING really cold. and then
>when mixed, i did not add the water as i thought it would just make it
>more gooey than it already was. AND i mixed it with my hands which were
>warm too....
When making pie crust, in addition to having everything cold, handle it as
little as possible. Using hands is a definite no-no - the only point where
hands should touch the dough is when forming it into a ball for rolling, and
when picking it up to put into the pie dish. But even handling with implements
should be minimised - just enough to cut in fats, mix, and roll - and in each
case, just enough that things aren't falling apart at the end of the process.
You still want pretty big fat lumps at the end of the cutting phase, a dough
with almost no apparent cohesiveness at the end of the mixing phase (when
pressed together, it should *just barely* stay in a ball - probably with some
crumbling) and a finished rolled crust which only just stays whole - you should
have to *ease* it very gently into the pie dish. My crust is usually so
delicate that, in fact, you can't really pick it up, at least not all the way.
What I have is a setup where the pie dish sits on a pull-out cutting board a
few inches below the counter. Then I slide the crust round off the pastry board
sitting on the counter right into the dish.
>
>its still in the fridge. maybe i can chop it up and use it as a base
>for the topping of a crisp? but i will try to bake a bit of it to see
>how it turns out. will probably break teeth, huh? myraide
Why not allow it to warm up back to room temperature, then mix in about 3/4 cup
sugar or so? This would make for a somewhat lean but probably OK shortbread-
like cookie. By adding 2 eggs as well, you could make something near to sugar
cookies. Form into a log and refrigerate the dough once you've mixed everything
in again, then bake at 375F. If you don't use the eggs, bake at a low
temperature - say, 325. If I were doing the eggless shortbread-style rescue,
I'd add 8 tbsp extra butter. In any case, however, I think the cookie-style
salvage is probably the best way to go.
--
Alex Rast
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
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