Pie Crust Question

[shauna]

Are there any pie bakers out there? I am becoming very frustrated with my attempts to make a "healthier" pie crust. I learned to make pies from my mother-in-law, who makes the most beautiful pies with the flakiest crust you've ever had! She truly has the art form down, and can effortlessly make a gorgeous pie in no time at all.

Anyway, she has passed her recipe and methods on to me, and while I can't quite pull it off like she does, I make pretty good pies if I do say so myself. My specialties are: blueberry (large, fresh, hand-picked blueberries are OVERFLOWING this time of year in Michigan!), apple (with Michigan Macintosh Apples in the fall), and pumpkin through the winter. This summer, I also want to work on a fresh peach with Michigan peaches.

My mil's crust recipe is the typical shortning and all purpose flour. I have worked on using butter, and using unbleached white flour or an unbleached white flour/whole wheat pastry flour combination. The problem is that a wheat crust will NOT stay together, and the unbleached white flour crust sticks far more to my working surface than an all-purpose flour crust, causing me to add lots more flour to the table - therefore overworking the dough and causing it to be tough. I also do not seem to get as good results with the butter.

When I make a pie with shortning and Gold Medal Flour, it's beautiful, light, flakey and PERFECT. When I make it "healthy", it comes out tough, or it is just so difficult to work with the crust that it is not nearly as "pretty" as what I'm accustomed to making.

Is there any help?? Any pie bakers been able to duplicate a light, flakey, pretty crust without having to use shortning and all-purpose white flour?

Shauna

[laura]

Shauna,

Yes, I too am a "pie junkie". I just made a cherry pie from scratch, and WOW is it a whole different flavor when you use fresh cherries!! My youngest and I cleaned, sliced and pitted about 2 1/2 lbs of Bing Cherries for one pie........mmmmmmmmm was it good! AND purple!!
Not "red" like Mrs. Smiths frozen pies.

But to the crust.

There is nothing healthy about the crust. Lard makes the best pie crust out there. Golden brown, flaky, melts in your mouth. About as healthy as eating 32 Hershey bars!!
I have not even tried to change the crust.....I was too afraid I would loose the quality of flavor and ruin a pie!!

((Side note: I understand ya'all have a cherry festival in MI? I looked it up on the web, and I missed it by one weekend this year!!
www.cherryfestival.org
This is the site I went too, it's for the one in Traverse City. Is this worth the trip from Indy next year, or is there a better one???))

Laura

[Mom2boys]

I confess that I am not a pie maker, but I have made the Breadbeckers pie crust and added extra butter and used it for my chicken pot pies and it was wonderful!