Tips for Perfect Pie Dough

I read cookbooks from front to back like most read a novel. I read every pull quote, sidebar, every forward, backward....every. word. And one of my very most favorite cookbooks that I've ever read is Baking with Julia, a whopping 480-page big-boy that resembles a college science book. This cookbook is a collaboration of all kinds of well-known bakers and pastry chefs who have pulled the finest baking recipes and tips from all of Julia Child's cooking shows. Julia is, in my opinion, the best. So if Julia says it, then I listen. She's like Jesus of Kitchen-reth. 

In Baking with Julia, there is a list of tips for making pie dough. And I have read them, studied them, and incorporated them into my pastry-making. Some of them I have covered in my own words this week as we've talked pie. But today I'm sharing the list with you straight out of the cookbook. So to finish off Pumpkin Pie Week and just in time for your holiday baking....here are the tips for perfect pie dough. Happy Friday!

These are a few general rules that obtain no matter what kind of crust of filling you choose; follow these and you and your crust will be golden. In fact, these same tips will help you make lovely biscuits and scones too.

-Work in a bowl that's large enough for you to dig into with both hands.

-Always use unsalted butter and make sure it is extremely cold. Cut the butter in 1/2-inch cubes before adding it to the flour.

-Use a pastry blender or your fingertips to cut the butter into the flour.  Work as quickly as you comfortably can and stop when the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

-When you use solid vegetable shortening, chill it and cut it into chunks a bit bigger than the butter cubes. Work the shortening into the dough until the mixture forms moist clumps and curds - when you add the liquid, you'll get even larger clumps.

-Keep the liquid icy-cold.  Add it a spoonful at a time, using a fork to toss the mixture and incorporate the liquid into the dough.  When the dough has curds and clumps that stick together when pressed lightly between your fingers, it's just right.  If you have any doubts, keep in mind that it's better to add too much liquid than too little; too little, and the crust will be dry and difficult to roll.

-Gently gather the dough into a round and then flatten it into a rough approximation of the shape you'll be rolling it into.

-Chill it.  Even if the dough feels cool to the touch, give it at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour, in the refrigerator.  This rest gives the gluten a chance to calm down so that when you start to roll the dough, it won't spring back.

-Roll the dough on a flour-dusted smooth, cool surface - marble is great, chilled marble is ideal.

-Roll the dough from the center out, rolling on one side and making certain to roll across the entire surface of the dough evenly. Lift the dough frequently to make sure it doesn't stick. As you roll, turn the dough - an eighth of a turn each time will keep it round.

-Transfer the dough to your pie or tart pan either by folding the dough in quarters, centering it in the pan and unfolding it, or by rolling it up around your rolling pin and unrolling it over the pan.

-Don't pull or stretch the dough - what you stretch now will shrink back later. Gently work the dough into the pan, lifting it to get a smooth fit against the bottom and up the sides. Follow the recipe's directions for forming and crimping the edge of the pie or tart.

-Chill the crust. Whether you are going to bake the crust blind or with a filling, give it a rest in the refrigerator. It's had a tough workout during the rolling and the gluten needs another chance to relax.

Pull up a stool....How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust or Pastry

If you've taken a minute to "Meet Euna Mae" (here) then you know that I learned a lot from her by pulling up a stool and watching her cook, asking questions, observing, and gaining an understanding of kitchen basics. So I invite you to pull up a stool...and learn how to blind bake a pie crust or pastry!

It's day three of Pumpkin Pie Week! Monday, I shared my favorite, fool-proof cream cheese pumpkin pie  recipe, and yesterday we dove into homemade sweetened whipped cream. So goooood. 

One of the most important steps in baking a single-crust pie like pumpkin is blind-baking.  Blind-baking is the process of baking a pie crust or pastry without the filling in it. This is a necessary step when a pie will be filled with an unbaked filling such as custard, pudding, and cream pies or when the filling has a shorter cook-time than the crust requires. Blind-baking dries out the crust and helps ward off a soggy bottom crust. And nobody likes a soggy bottom...

The instructions for blind-baking a crust are the same whether your recipe requires a completely baked shell or a partially-baked shell. My cream cheese pumpkin pie recipe requires a partially baked shell to dry out the pastry a little before pouring in the liquid-y filling, all of which will be returned to the oven to continue to bake.  Just follow your specific recipe instructions for how to prepare the crust. 

HOW TO BLIND BAKE A PIE CRUST OR PASTRY

1. Whether store-bought or homemade, carefully line a pie plate with the pastry, pressing into the plate around the bottom and sides

2. Trim any excess overlay, tuck the edges under, and apply your preferred decorative detail to the crust edge. Being generous and allowing a heavier crust edge will help prevent shrinkage when blind-baking the shell.

3. Use the docking-method to prick holes with a fork all around the bottom and sides of the crust to prevent bubbling up while baking. 

4. Place the unfilled pie crust in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, but preferable an hour or even overnight. Frozen crusts shrink less; and the colder your crust is when it hits the hot oven, the flakier it is!

5. After your crust is frozen, line the shell with parchment paper with plenty of extra paper sticking up and out of the pie plate (which will give you 'handles' to lift it out later), and fill completely to the top of the crust with 2lbs of dried beans. You may also use pie weights if you prefer. Be sure to press the beans/weights into the sides so there's no room between the crust and the weights. Space allows opportunity for the sides to collapse! And that, my friends, ranks as one of the top most-maddening kitchen happenings.

6. Bake the frozen, lined, and weighted shell in a preheated oven (usually around 400-425 degrees) for 15 minutes before removing pie weights. For a fully-baked pie shell, bake a total of 35-45 minutes or until completely dried out and browned. For a partially baked pie shell, bake a total of 20-25 minutes until dried and getting a little color. 

Then follow the recipe to make a perfectly delicious pie, tart, or quiche!

No soggy bottoms here!

The Case and Care for Wood Spoons and Wood Cutting Boards

Your grandmother and great-grand used them. Your mama may have used them. And TV chefs, culinary instructors and cooks from sea to shining sea use them. Wooden spoons and wood cutting boards. I sold gobs of them so quickly at the boutique show this past weekend because there's an undeniable draw that makes people want wood in their kitchens, but so many of you said you didn't know how to care for it.  So here's everything you need to know about how to care for your kitchen wood! 

{The Case for Wood Spoons and Boards}

1. Wood is sturdy and strong unlike many plastic utensils. You can dig a wood spoon down into the biggest bowl of salted chocolate chip cookie dough to stir in the chips and move that thick dough around without trouble. 

2. Wood is sturdy, but it's also soft enough to use with your good cookware or your mixing bowls. We've all seen those gray scratch marks in the bottom of our favorite mixing bowls from using metal spoons. And no one wants to scratch the nonstick off of their pans or scrape up the pretty insides of their most valuable Dutch oven!

3. Wood is temperature-resistant which means it doesn't suck heat or produce any unwanted heat when you're stirring candy, fudge, or anything else that is temperature-sensitive.

4. Wood has a high heat tolerance! You can leave a wood spoon in a pot of soup or resting on the side of your skillet, and not only will it not melt like plastic utensils do but the handle will not get hot like metal utensils do.

5. It's charming. There's something about cooking with wood that is cozy and warm. There's an unexplainable sense of nostalgia that comes with using wood spoons. Try it. It's magical.

6. Wood cutting boards are easier on your knives than plastic cutting boards. 

7. Although new cutting boards without knife-scratches can be easily disinfected, studies have shown that more bacteria is recovered from a plastic cutting board than a wood board as soon as the plastic cutting board begins to show scars.  Plus those little deep cuts and shreds that you see on your plastic cutting boards...well those little pieces of shredded plastic end up in your food. Most good wood boards are self-healing and will not acquire the deep knife-scars.

NOTE: Raw meat is everyone's greatest fear when it comes to wood cutting boards. I suggest using a buffering paper like a heavy butcher paper between the meat and the board. Clean the cutting board according to the care instructions below as soon as it comes into contact with raw meat.

{Care for Wood Spoons and Boards}

Wood cutting boards and wooden spoons are the hardest working items in my kitchen besides my knife. And with just a little regular maintenance, your wood items will perform beautifully and last for years!

Regular Cleaning: Wash wood spoons/boards with hot water and dish soap using a gentle brush or kitchen rag.  Washing them as soon as you're finished with them is best. Do not put wood in the dishwasher or soak them in water. Simply clean off the surface with hot water and soap. Dry off the surface water with a kitchen towel and allow them to dry.

Removing Odors: To remove odors from your wood, spritz the wood with vinegar. The vinegar smell will evaporate. So don't worry!

Seasonal Maintenance: When the wood feels dry, looks dull, or feels fiber-y, use a fine-grade sandpaper to gently sand the surface. Wipe the dust off with a towel. Cut a lemon in half and rub a fresh lemon all over the surface of the wood not missing any spots! Wipe again with a towel. Then apply a food-safe mineral oil or specialty wood oil like Boos Block Mystery Oil. Apply liberally, rubbing into the wood with the grain; allow to sit and condition the wood for 10 minutes before wiping off the excess oil. Do NOT use vegetable or olive oil on your wood; it will go rancid and ruin your wood.

This level of deep cleaning maintenance should be done at least 4 times a year. I call it 'seasonal maintenance' because it helps me remember to treat my wood with each change of the seasons which is every 3 months or so. It only takes a minute, but you'll love what it does for your wood! I keep a small pack of fine sandpaper tucked right in between my cutting boards so it's handy when I need it. 

Anything worth having requires a little elbow grease and heart. And caring for your wood just takes a little know-how! Your pots, knives, fudge, and grandchildren will love you for it!

Pull up a stool....how to evenly bake in your oven!

If you've taken a minute to "Meet Euna Mae" (here) then you know that I learned a lot from her by pulling up a stool and watching her cook, asking questions, observing, and gaining an understanding of kitchen basics. So I invite you to pull up a stool...and let's talk about baking things evenly in your oven.

Do you have cake layers that come out higher on one side than the other?

Do you have sheets of cookies where some of them are baked correctly and the other half aren't quite finished?

Do you have breads, pizzas, casseroles and other dishes that seem to get brown on one end and not the other end?

Do you have sloped, uneven pound cakes like this one? (yes, that's mine!)

Well, here's another great baking tip to help you bake evenly in your oven! 

First, be sure that your oven rack is positioned so that the pan that you're baking in is sitting in the middle of the oven. Often times, if you position your rack in the center rung, it results in your bundt pan or casserole dish sitting up too high in the oven. So when in doubt, position your rack in the middle position or the next rung just below center. (That's actually a bonus tip. Carrying on...)

Second, set the timer for a little more than half of the suggested baking time. So if the baking time for this bundt is 50 minutes, then set the timer for 30 minutes (a little more than half.) Gently open the oven door and rotate the pan so that the left side is now on the right and the right side is now on the left. Rotate very carefully so you do no disturb the rise or air that your baked goods have already achieved. Set your timer for the remaining amount of time and continue to bake as directed.

Ovens are not always balanced and they do not always heat equally on all sides. So rotating your pan a little more than halfway through the baking time should solve the problem of uneven baking and pound cakes that look like land slides! 

Three cheers for becoming better bakers! 

Pull up a stool...preheating your oven! I mean it!

{courtesy}

If you've taken a minute to "Meet Euna Mae" (here) then you know that I learned a lot from her by pulling up a stool and watching her cook, asking questions, observing, and gaining an understanding of kitchen basics. So I invite you to pull up a stool...and let's talk about preheating your oven!

I know what you're thinking. Out of all the kitchen skills, preheating your oven is the one that you've got down pat. Well....just you hold on a minute. This is about to change your life.

Before I get into the 'change your life' part, let me say this. Preheat your oven. Do not put food in a cold or warming oven while the temperature rises. The cold, warm, and uneven temperatures will affect your cooking and will ruin your baking. In a big way. So follow the instructions on every recipe and preheat your oven fully, unless otherwise noted in the recipe.  Now that we're all on board...

Most ovens these days not only beep, but they also display the climbing temperature so you can watch right down to the second when your oven is 'preheated'. But guess what, y'all.  That temperature and beeping is signaling that the actual coil inside is heated to the desired temperature.  It does NOT mean that the entire oven is heated nor does it mean that it's time to open the door and put your pan in.  Although the coil is heated up to the right temperature, it takes some time for the heat to expand and fill the entire oven to the correct temperature.  So after your oven beeps or says that it's 400 degrees, wait at least 10 more minutes (20 is better if you have the time) before putting your prepared pan inside.  No more standing at the oven and sticking freezer biscuits in the oven the very second it beeps at you. Give it another little bit. Drink some sweet tea. Chop an onion. Fold some towels. Check your instagram.

If you've ever experienced oven tragedies like cookies that are burned on the bottom, unevenly baked cakes or meats, and unleavened or sunken cakes and muffins (and we all have), they could well be related to the pre-preheated oven theory.

I mean, now that you think about it - doesn't it make absolutely perfect sense?!

Life-changing.

Pull up a stool...lemon basics!

If you've taken a minute to "Meet Euna Mae" (here) then you know that I learned a lot from her by pulling up a stool and watching her cook, asking questions, observing, and gaining an understanding of kitchen basics. So I invite you to pull up a stool...and let's talk lemons!

Next to salt and pepper, I truly believe that lemon is the next most common ingredient I use for flavor in my kitchen! 

If you saw the recipe for Euna Mae's Lemon Glazed Cake (here), you saw that fresh lemon juice is used in the cake batter itself and on top of the cake in the glaze. There is absolutely no substitute for fresh lemon juice. And I don't want to hurt the feelings of the bottled lemon juice people, but it ain't the same. If I learned anything of kitchen-long value from Euna Mae, it was to always use fresh lemon. Always.

So here are few lemon basics that I hope will make you more savvy in your own kitchen! Because good solid fundamentals are what make good cooks great! 

CHOOSING LEMONS

Choose lemons that are smaller and heavier for their size. Smaller lemons tend to be juicier than the big ones. Also be sure they don't have cuts or bruises on the flesh. Pick the pretty ones!

STORING LEMONS

Store lemons in the refrigerator in the crisper drawer OR store them loosely on a refrigerator shelf inside the bag they came in. Refrigerating lemons gives them longer life!

LEMON TEMPERATURE

Bring lemons to room temperature when you plan to use them. Room temperature lemons will juice better than cold lemons.

ZESTING LEMONS

Using a microplane zester, grate the rind - the bright yellow outer layer of the lemon - and use in your recipe or freeze in little baggies for adding to future sweet breads, pastas, marinades and more! Be swift but gentle when you zest so you're sure not to grate down into the white layer which is the bitter pith. Zest a whole lemon before you cut it or you'll have quite a time trying to zest a half-lemon. I put lemon zest in probably 75% of the dishes/desserts I make!!

JUICING LEMONS

Roll the room-temperature lemon on the counter, apply pressure with your palm.  This step loosens all the little lemon juice sacs inside so you get the most juice!  Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the lemon into the cupped hand of your other hand, letting the juice fall between your (clean) fingers, but letting your hands catch the seeds. OR you can buy one of these dreamy citrus squeezies and let it do the work for you.  I juice so many lemons to make fresh lemon bars that I finally bought the tool because my old hands couldn't take it anymore.  It has been a life-changer, y'all.  On average, there are 2-3 tablespoons of juice per lemon...in case you're wondering.

FREEZING LEMON JUICE

Whole lemons do not freeze well.  However, you can juice the lemon and freeze the juice in jars or even ice cube trays! Mmmmmm, imagine a few fresh lemon ice cubes dropped down inside sweet tea with mint?! See, always thinking....

USES FOR LEMON RINDS

There are at least 753 uses for leftover lemon rinds, including cleaning products, hair care, deodorizers, infused sugars and oils and more! And we'll talk about those in detail on another day!  I personally love to cut up my rinds into smaller pieces and run them down my disposal to cut the grime and give off a fresh citrus scent. It's quick and it's resourceful!