Sugar and Spice and Pastry Dough Advice!

i feel that my weeks schedule has derailed!



 it has felt that way for a number of weeks now. My schedule in the past weeks have included being with people instead of just at home all the time like it used to. I am trying to find a balance between the two.

I used to be at home all the time and the schedule worked great! But as i have been learning, people, not schedules, make life richer.

I have been working with pie dough for years. My Mother has a great recipe for pie dough that she has taught me when I was a girl. Its really simple and i will share it with you!

Pie Dough

5 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 cups lard

crumble these three ingredients, do not mush it!
once cumbled, add

1 cup COLD water

mix together.

(makes one large covered pie in a cookie sheet, and one small crust ready for a pudding filling.)



Here are some of the tricks of the trade I have learned to make this good pie dough, into great pie dough!

1. When mixing your water with the crumble mixture, fold your dough.
when you just mix the dough together by squishing it all together you ruin the little pockets of lard that melt and create the flaky texture we associate with pastry dough. Folding the dough creates these amazing layers within the pastry dough.

2. refrigerate dough for around 30 minutes for best results.
When your dough is all ready, place it in the fridge to cool off and  harden the lard so it doesn't get too soft.

3. brush the surface of your pie crust with an egg white wash.
My mom always brushed hers with milk , but the other day when I was making pie, I discovered I was out of milk! But an idea came to me. In other baking recipes, they often call for an egg white wash, to give a nice finish to what ever you are baking. What I did was take one egg white and mix it with around 1 tbsp. of water and brush it on top. when it came out of the oven it had this amazing glaze like crust covering the surface!

these are the three things I do to ensure a great crust! Now i actually enjoy eating the crusty end of the pie, and I hope you will too!

Well today is my laundry day, so I better get start on it so it doesn't get a late start.

Blessings!
Karen E.