Pie crust

3 Responses for "Pie crust"

1. Chef Paulette August 24th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

   Betty,
   Don’t cover the pie in the refrigerator. Let the eggs breathe. Covering the pie will make it wet and soggy.

   Chef Paulette

2. Chef Adam August 28th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

   High temperature (summer) and humidity (also summer, depending on where you live) are the most likely culprits for soggifying your pie crust. Try taking occasional breaks while making even just one pie, while returning your dough to the refrigerator. The resting periods in the fridge will A. keep the butter from melting and allowing the dough to lose flakiness and become, essentially, scone batter, and B. will allow the moisture to gradually absorb into the flour and increase tenderness. Very cool, overlooked step in dough-making. Your problems will likely cease as the seasons change, but don’t forget the refrigerator method come Thanksgiving and Christmas time!

3. Chef Adam September 2nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm

   One great way to avoid soggy pie crust, which usually happens to the bottom layer as opposed to the top, is to incorporate the butter into the flour more. This is essentially scone batter, as I mentioned above, but what I forgot to mention in that scone dough repels moisture better than the big-lumps-of-butter classic pie dough. Since pie dough with big lumps of butter is flakier, but pie dough (scone dough) with smaller lumps repels moisture (and is generally even more tender), I personally like to divide batches of pie dough in about half when the lumps are about thumb-sized (but before you’ve added any water or milk), and then mix one of the half-batches a bit more to cut in the butter into smaller piece, similar to a cornmeal consistency. Then you can use the first batch (with the big lumps) for the pie tops, and use the second batch for the bottoms, giving you the best of both – flaky tops and very non-soggy bottoms.