17 Surprising Recipes That Start With Store Bought Pie Crust (2024)

FAQs

What is the number 2 most important thing when making pie crust? ›

#2—Add cold water

Before you start making the dough, fill a glass with ice and water. Add the ice water gradually to the dough, about one tablespoon or so at a time, and stop when the dough is just moist enough to hold together when a handful is squeezed.

The first written reference to a Roman pie is for a rye dough that was filled with a mixture of goat's cheese and honey. The 1st-century Roman cookbook Apicius makes various mentions of recipes which involve a pie case.

The Ancient Egyptians created the first example of what we know as pies today. Later on, closer to the 5th Century BC, the Ancient Greeks were believed to invent pie pastry as it is mentioned in the plays of the writer Aristophanes and it was possible to work as a pastry chef in this era, a separate trade to a baker.

“My preferred fat for pie crusts will always be butter. To me, it is all about flavor, and no other fat gives flavor to a crust like butter does. Other fats, even though they have great pros, lack flavor,” De Sa Martins said. “The more flavorful the butter, the more flavor your pie crust will have,” Huntsberger added.

1. Use Very Cold Butter or Fat. Butter, shortening, lard, or suet—whatever fat the recipe calls for should be well-chilled and cut into small pieces to start with for the flakiest crust in the end. The fat in a pie crust must maintain some of its integrity in the dough to make the crust truly flaky.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Tip: Chilling hardens the fat in the dough, which will help the crust maintain its structure as it bakes. And the short rest before rolling relaxes the dough's gluten, helping prevent a tough crust.

The cons: Butter can be harder to work with than lard or shortening because of its lower melting point, so the dough temperature has to be just right. If it gets too warm, it will be too soft to handle and will tear easily. Butter is a firmer fat, so if it's too cold, your dough will be more difficult to roll out.

Wrapping the crust edge is recommended for all kinds of pies: fruit pies and meat pies, frozen and fresh, homemade and store-bought. Without wrapping the crust, the edges will likely burn if you try to bake the pie until the center crust is browned. The crust edge is thinner and easily burns.

The term “pie” eventually originated in medieval England, where they were called “pyes.” English pie was often filled with meat like beef, lamb, or duck and spiced with currants, dates, or pepper.

What do pies stand for? ›

PIES are the four areas of a child's development- physical, intellectual, emotional, and social. Each of these areas is important to a child's overall development and a parent should engage their children in the PIES every day.

The perfect pie crust is both flaky and tender. It has light flaky layers. A tender and golden brown crust that has flavor good enough to eat on its own. The layers of dough are distinct and clearly seen.

Keep the Butter Cold

With this goal in mind, the cardinal rule of pie crusts is to keep things as cold as possible.

While both pie and tarts are (usually) desserts with two main components, a baked crust, and a filling, there are a few marked differences between the two and some careful things to consider when making either, like choosing ingredients and deciding when and where to serve them.