D! M! X!
I made a pie and I loved it so much I named it DMX.
Here's the deal.
I've always had trouble with rolling out the dough and especially transferring the dough and especially especially binding the dough halves together. I've heard rumors from people much smarter than I that "No, really, you need to be chilling your dough. Seriously. You have to chill it." Unfortunately, that was months and months ago and there was much Pliny The Elder.
So anyway, rather than dive in yet again hoping that somehow the dough would turn out better through sheer will, I practiced safe science. And you know who's the researcher who has already figured out all the tough stuff and tried it again, and then tried it again, and then took pictures of it and wrote it up online? Deb over at smittenkitchen.com.
Need to kill a few hours today?
Part 2: Dough science (I didn't follow this recipe though)
Part 3: The actual dough recipe
Part 4: Dough rolling strategy
Essentially what I did is this:
I followed the dough recipe here to the T, except for the parts where I didn't. Namely, I used vegetable shortening instead of butter, but next time I do this I'm switching to butter. And when she says, "Fill a one cup liquid measuring cup with water, and drop in a few ice cubes; set it aside" I put the cup directly in the freezer. It was just icing over when I pulled it out which I suspect is perfect. Real cold water is part of the trick it seems.
Then while those were chilling (two hours in the refrigerator), I did up the apples. For this I followed my Little Nana's recipe. 7 pink lady apples in this case, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice (freestyling here! Watch out now), lemon juice. Let it sit, then just before you add it to the pie, drain off the extra juices. Juicy but not soggy pie every time.
Once the two hours were up I rolled 'em out and I tell you, this is a sorrowful time in my life. Oh how the doughs crack and fight and fuss and in every other way make life miserable for me! But not this time! I've honestly never seen dough roll out so quickly and easily. Even transferring them was a piece of cake! Chill that dough for great justice!
Plop a dough in, plop the drained apples in, sprinkle with flour (secret step!) to fight sogginess (for great justice), plop on the other dough. Fold, crimp, dot with milk, sprinkle on more cinnamon sugar, poke holes (great justice). Bake 25 minutes at 425°, rotate and bake for 25 more minutes at 375°. Boom, pie.
D! M! X!
I made a pie and I loved it so much I named it DMX.
Here's the deal.
I've always had trouble with rolling out the dough and especially transferring the dough and especially especially binding the dough halves together. I've heard rumors from people much smarter than I that "No, really, you need to be chilling your dough. Seriously. You have to chill it." Unfortunately, that was months and months ago and there was much Pliny The Elder.
So anyway, rather than dive in yet again hoping that somehow the dough would turn out better through sheer will, I practiced safe science. And you know who's the researcher who has already figured out all the tough stuff and tried it again, and then tried it again, and then took pictures of it and wrote it up online? Deb over at smittenkitchen.com.
Need to kill a few hours today?
Part 2: Dough science (I didn't follow this recipe though)
Part 3: The actual dough recipe
Part 4: Dough rolling strategy
Essentially what I did is this:
I followed the dough recipe here to the T, except for the parts where I didn't. Namely, I used vegetable shortening instead of butter, but next time I do this I'm switching to butter. And when she says, "Fill a one cup liquid measuring cup with water, and drop in a few ice cubes; set it aside" I put the cup directly in the freezer. It was just icing over when I pulled it out which I suspect is perfect. Real cold water is part of the trick it seems.
Then while those were chilling (two hours in the refrigerator), I did up the apples. For this I followed my Little Nana's recipe. 7 pink lady apples in this case, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice (freestyling here! Watch out now), lemon juice. Let it sit, then just before you add it to the pie, drain off the extra juices. Juicy but not soggy pie every time.
Once the two hours were up I rolled 'em out and I tell you, this is a sorrowful time in my life. Oh how the doughs crack and fight and fuss and in every other way make life miserable for me! But not this time! I've honestly never seen dough roll out so quickly and easily. Even transferring them was a piece of cake! Chill that dough for great justice!
Plop a dough in, plop the drained apples in, sprinkle with flour (secret step!) to fight sogginess (for great justice), plop on the other dough. Fold, crimp, dot with milk, sprinkle on more cinnamon sugar, poke holes (great justice). Bake 25 minutes at 425°, rotate and bake for 25 more minutes at 375°. Boom, pie.