Last week I was craving peach pie. I had some beautiful Zaycon peaches to use so I pulled out my recipes. I get around to making a pie about once a year, so when I pulled my Crisco out of the pantry it was RANCID. Yuck. I guess I have no other uses for Crisco. What do you use it for? I had already prepared my peaches and my craving was not going away so I decided to try making a crust with butter. Well, it turned out fabulous!
Pie Crust Recipe
2 ½ Cup Flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup of chilled diced butter
½ cup water
This makes a double pie crust.
In a large bowl combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until you get course crumbs. I like to use a pastry blender. You can also use two forks, but it is much easier with the pastry blender. Once you have a crumb like mixture mix in cold water 1 Tablespoon at a time, until it forms a ball. Do not allow the crust to get too wet. You may not use all of the water. It is recommended to refrigerate dough for 4 hours covered. I only did about 20 minutes because I did not want to wait until 1 am to eat my pie. My crust turned out fine, but possibly could have had an even more improved texture with refrigeration.
When it comes time to roll out the pie crust this is my favorite method by far. I have tried using a pastry cloth and it worked well, but not as well as my Silpat.
Transfer is easy with the Silpat too. Simply turn the Silpat upside down and peel away. For perfect crust.
The other tool that I love when I bake is my french pastry pin, it is so nice to roll with. You can see it pictured next to my pie in the photo below.
Pie Filling
6 pitted and sliced peaches
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
Slice peaches set aside. Mix flour, sugar and butter to crumb stage. I used my pastry blender, but you could use two forks. Layer peaches in crust then sprinkle butter mixture and continue layering until you use all for the crumbs and peaches.
So my tip for cutting the pie crust into the lattice strips is to use a dough or pastry scraper. This tool is also really fab when rolling pizza or bread dough. It makes it easier to handle and easier to clean up!
Bake your pie for 45 minutes at 350° until crust is golden. Sometimes peach pie can turn out runny. Especially if your peaches are really juicy. So to avoid a really runny pie you can either add a tablespoon of corn starch to your filling topping mixture or when the pie is done turn off the oven and leave your pie inside to cool down. I was out of cornstarch so I tried the oven trick for this pie.
For rolling pie crust, I always roll it out between two sheets of wax paper. Then I peel off one side, replace it lightly, flip it over, peel off the other side carefully, leave it off, place the crust on the pie pan, and remove the other piece of wax paper. It always works great for me!
I have tried this with one piece but not with two. It totally did not work with one, I am eager to try it with two pieces. Seems like it will work much better.
A tablespoon of tapioca will also help prevent runny pies!
Thanks for the tip!
That is a beautiful pie! Nice job!
Thanks Lena!
If you ever decorate cakes you will probably use a ton of shortening! I use it in some of my frosting if i am decorating with it (half shortening half butter) and always use it when I am working with fondant and gumpaste. I don’t ever cook with it though!
Good to know. Thanks Sophie!
I keep my Crisco in the fridge because I don’t use it often either. As far as rolling out pie crust – I have a zippered pastry bag like these – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CYLDBE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=fabulfruga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005CYLDBE . I just stick the bag on the top rack of the dishwasher to clean it. They come in different sizes.
That is pretty fab! I have never seen one of those. I love my silpat though! It makes my cookies perfect.
Just a tip…if you have a food processor. I measure my pie crust dry ingredients and them pulse them quickly in my food processor. Then I cut the butter into tablespoon size pieces and put them in the food processor. Pulse a few times until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Then smoosh it lightly into a ball when I take it out and roll it from there. The quick process keeps the butter from getting soft and makes the pie crust nice and flaky. Saves on time and hand work too.
Happy baking!
Half butter plus half lard, or 2/3 butter to 1/3 lard actually makes the tastiest, flakiest pie crust ever. I do not like the taste of a Crisco crust, so I always make butter crust and if my mom won’t be sharing the pie with us (she’s a vegetarian, so she doesn’t eat lard), I use part lard.
Another trick to thicken your pie filling is you can peel and grate one apple into it. The apple does not really change the flavor, but it adds enough natural pectin that it makes the juice set up. For berry pies, that’s usually what I do because I think it gives the perfect texture, but I haven’t tried it with peach.
I have a recipe for the most amazing homemade tortillas ever that uses lots of shortening. I actually made them for dinner tonight! They are simple and much more frugal than buying packaged ones (unless they’re free, of course!). I’d be happy to share if you ever would like to try them out (or need to use up shortening!).
Would love it! Will you send me the recipe and a pic? Pretty please. I would love to share them with our readers. monica@fabulesslyfrugal.com
I know everyone will disagree, but Lard is the key to a great flaky pie crust. It way better for you than an unnatural Crisco product with hydrognated oils. Used in moderation (once a year like you said) you’ll be fine. Lard really does get a bad rap, but if you think about it can’t be any worse for us than all of the trans fats we get from fast food and from processed cookies, cakes, etc. And in a side-by-side comparison in the article link below, you’ll see lard is even a winner over butter. I get my lard from a local German butcher/deli shop and they make it at their local meat processing shop. It does not make your food taste like pork. Promise!
Check this article about lard from Food and Wine Magazine:
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/lard-the-new-health-food
By the way..your pie looks delicious. Yummy!!
My grandmother always uses lard. Her pies are fantastic. I never have lard on hand so butter worked well for me.
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