Pie Crackers (Pie Crust Trilogy Part II) (YF)

Time for part two of what I am calling our Pie Crust Trilogy! So, you’ve mastered last week’s pie crust? Or maybe you are just thinking about giving it a try (be brave!), but aren’t sure what to actually do with it once it’s made. Well, I’ve got a scrumptious apple pie recipe coming up soon, but first, here’s something VERY easy, fun and yummy to do with your crust.

Pie Crackers are a sweet cookie-like treat made with the dough that’s left over after you put a pie together. This is a family recipe, handed down from Grandma to Mom to me, so I can't pick on the creator of this recipe without getting into trouble! Your family may have something similar-it’s not Rocket Science! I’ve been known to make them all on their own, too. They are super easy, kids can help (just in case you have some that may stray into the kitchen while you're baking), and everyone loves to eat them-they never seem to last long.

We’ll start with the dough, all made and ready to go!

Pie Crackers (YF)

If you made the pie crust for TWO crusts, use only half. If you have made a pie, squash your leftover dough back into a ball.

First, set your oven for 450 degrees and your rack in the center of the oven.

Roll your dough out on a floured surface as you would for a pie crust. The nice thing here is you don’t have to worry about making a nice circle to go into your pie pan. Square, rectangle, circles-whatever you come up with is fine. Aim for a uniformly thin sheet of dough. For pie crusts you want approximately 1/8 inch thick. Think the same here, however, if you tend to like crispier cookies, you can go a bit thinner (caution-they cook faster!). Once you’ve baked a sheet of these, you’ll have a good idea what you like best!

Cut the dough into squares (ragged edges are good-sometimes very good once cooked!) and again, no rules on shapes here. You could use cookie cutters, but this is thin dough, so save some patience for transferring the pieces to the baking sheet.

Tip: You may want to do a test run with only 2-3 pieces on the baking sheet the first time, if you are at all anxious about how quickly they brown up. This will give you some added confidence, too. Always a good thing!

Speaking of which...transfer the pieces to the baking sheet! You can spray your baking sheets with non-stick spray (i.e. Pam) or line them with foil if you like, but I like to line my baking sheets with parchment paper, rather than place cookies directly on them. This may seem like a pain-and an added expense. But honestly, once you start doing this, you’ll love it! Cookies cook up better-brown better on the bottom, never stick, and you don’t have to wash the sheet! If you are neat and tidy (which really, these particular goodies aren’t!) you can even use the paper 2 or 3 times!

Brush each cracker with a small amount of milk-just enough to wet the whole surface. (FYI...you should have a pastry brush that you ONLY USE for sweet things. Don’t let anyone put BBQ sauce on the chicken legs with your pastry brush or your pastries might eventually start to have a little savory, garlic scent-yuck!)

Sprinkle each piece with sugar, about a teaspoon per cracker--use your fingers! It will look like a lot, but it isn’t. Ultimately, this is one of those things you will tweak over time, depending on how sweet you like your Pie Crackers, but this is a good place to start. (During the holidays, you can mix colored sugars 50/50 with regular sugar.)

Next, sprinkle each piece with cinnamon. Don’t get too heavy handed, but don’t be shy either. You’ll get the hang of it. 2-3 shakes per cracker.

Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, after that, bake at 1-2 minute intervals but WATCH THEM! Don’t leave them unattended toward the end. There’s a lot of sugar on those babies, and sugar is just waiting to reach the appropriate temperature so it can burn! When you see them browning with a slight carmelization on the thinner edges, it’s time to pull them! If you have some pieces that are thinner than others, they will brown up faster. Those you may want to remove and put on a rack to cool, while putting the sheet back into the oven a little bit longer for the rest.

Altogether, depending on how hot your oven is (yes, don’t let that official temperature fool you, some ovens run hotter than others) you are probably looking at 7-8 minutes total.

Cool on a rack--careful, don’t taste yet-that hot sugar can burn your tongue!

Once cooled, these are great after school with milk, or in the morning with coffee or well...anytime really.

You’ve done it! I’m so proud. :)

Practically Perfect Pie Crust (Pie Crust Trilogy Part I)

Wait! If the mere mention of this topic makes you nervous, bringing up anxious memories of what your family now refers to in hushed tones as, ‘the pie crust incident’, causing you to reach for the chardonnay every time someone suggests making a pie... or even if you’re just a newbie and it never occurred to you that crust came in something other than a box(who knew?!)-please read on! I can help.

Pie crust is one of those things that can make a good cook cry; it is both science and art. But you don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist to do this. Just remember, practically is the key word in the title. There’s no pressure here, and certainly no need to self-medicate while baking!

Okay, first, if you are easily intimidated, DO NOT purchase The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I am going to walk you through the easy version of her Basic Flakey Pie Crust recipe on page 22. But unless you are a total baking freak you do not want to know all the steps and details that get you to page 22...and beyond... in this book.

Rose knows her crust, but she can take a simple recipe and beat it to a pulp with minute details that, while possibly resulting in a truly perfect crust (temperature and humidity of the day depending) will absolutely make the average person swear never to make their own crusts again!

So let’s back up a bit before we tackle this puppy, go over a few tips and come to a better understanding of the kitchen science at work here.

There are all kinds of things that can affect how your crust turns out, many of which we are just not going to consider-life is too short and we are trying to keep this simple! We won’t worry about mixing your flours to achieve the optimal protein levels (yes, Rose does that!). We absolutely will not be weighing anything, either. (Do you have a food scale? I know I don’t) But there are some things you can do to give yourself a ‘leg up’ on crust.

Kitchen Science/Pastry tips:

*Okay, I fibbed a bit about the flour, because I AM going to tell you that if you are really into this recipe, you can look for actual Pastry Flour (King Arthur makes a great version and it can be ordered online if you can’t find it in a store...which you probably can’t.) However, that said, I make the majority of my crusts with good old Pillsbury or Gold Medal All Purpose Flour. They may not be perfect for the task, but they are more than good enough.

*Two Words: Food Processor. I’ll get you through this without it, but really you would never regret this purchase for so many reasons besides pastry!

*Big Secret #1: COLD. Cold butter (even frozen), cold water, cold dough; up until you put it in the oven, the colder the better! Rose will keep you running back and forth between freezer and workstation for half the day to create one simple crust, if she could, but we’re not going to let her. For our purposes, we start with cold ingredients and then we just keep moving along. No time to stop and re-chill. I have other things to do today besides make pie crust, and I bet you do, too.

* Big Secret #2: Vinegar! Really. Vinegar will add acidity which weakens the gluten in the flour and makes the dough easier to roll, and, ultimately, flakier.

*Finally, keep those bits of butter chunky until you add the liquid. Recipes always say ‘pea size’, but, as with so many things, bigger is better (like brownies-what were YOU thinking of?), so just think lumpy. It bulks up the gluten which means a more tender crust. (Tender and Flakey are two different things in the crust world).

Okay, let’s get baking!

Basic Flakey Pie Crust (YF) (this is Rose’s recipe, as mentioned above, tweaked and commented upon by yours truly.)

This is a great pie crust, and pie cracker crust. Not familiar with pie crackers? We’ll tackle that in in a future blog, but let the kids know, something yummy is coming--and they can help!

FYI...read through this whole recipe before you DO anything! (this is a good rule of thumb for ALL recipes!) DON’T be intimidated by the length (I’m chatty, sorry). It’s really basic and simple.

Pastry for Two-Crust 9 inch pie: (if you only need one, make two and freeze the other one-you won’t regret it.)

*14 Tb. unsalted butter, COLD! (What did I tell you about the cold thing?!) You will seldom see a pastry recipe that calls for salted butter, by the way. These guys like to control the addition of salt themselves. You can use salted butter if it’s all you have--heaven knows I have!!... but it’s not preferred. Just don’t add any more salt! And yes, you can use something like ‘I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter’, but different products react differently, so I’d go with butter until you feel more confident.

*2 1/4 cups flour (she measures this with the ‘dip and sweep’ method-just what it sounds like)

*Salt 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. (think of it as a pinch-like I said, if you used salted butter above, don’t add salt).

*1/4 tsp. baking powder (Rose makes this optional, I’m telling you, put it in. According to Rose it, “helps to counteract the dough’s tendency to shrink...helps to lift, aerate, and tenderize it...” Why would you not want that?)

*5-7 Tb. Ice Water (put some ice cubes in a large cup, fill with water and set aside until needed-do this now!)

*1 Tb. cider vinegar (regular vinegar is fine if that’s what you have. BUT...1Tb. is a lot and can leave a lingering vinegar scent which Rose is not entirely opposed to, but I am. I’d go with 1 1/2 tsp.)

Food processor: (Plastic Baggie-i.e. Ziploc-directions below if you have no processor), mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Cut your COLD butter (right out of the freezer is okay) into 3/4 inch cubes and add to the flour mixer. Process in pulses until the butter is about the size of peas. Err on the side of larger, not smaller.

Baggie: mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl or in the baggie. If you start with a bowl, use a pastry cutter (usually available in any kitchen department) or your hands to ‘cut/rub’ the butter into the flour mixture until you get those little peas mentioned above. You can do this in the large gallon size Baggie too, just squeeze out the air first and zip it.

Both: Mix your vinegar in a small bowl with the first 3 Tb. of cold water and pour that into you flour mixture.

Food processor: pulse until mixed and add additional water up to 7Tb. maximum until the dough begins to come together and holds together when pinched. You don’t want it too wet, so don’t overdo the water.

Baggie: If you started in the bowl, pour it in the Baggie now, add the water/vinegar mix, plus additional water up to 7Tb. maximum. Squeeze the air out, zip the bag and squeeze and knead the bag to mix. (Kids like to help with this part!) When you are done you will pull it out in clumps and mush it together on your rolling surface. This actually works really well. Honest!

FYI...Somewhere between 5-7Tb. water will be just right, so add it in stages just to avoid getting your dough too wet and sticky-but if you do...add a bit more flour when rolling it out and you’ll survive!

Divide your dough in half-remember, this recipe makes TWO crusts! If you only need one, wrap the other in plastic wrap and put it in a baggie and freeze. It will be easy to roll out after a short thawing period some other day....

Rolling: Lightly flour a smooth, dry surface. Pat your dough into a ball and mush the ball into a thick and even pancake-about 5 inches across. Dust with flour and begin rolling evenly. Add a little flour if it gets sticky (check underneath-it gets sticky there sooner than on top!) You are aiming for about an 8^th of an inch thick. Try to keep it uniform...but let’s be realistic; this is part of the Practically Perfect feature of this recipe!

Congratulations! You have made a crust-now what? For now, if you’ve actually DONE this...you can lay the rolled out crust on waxed paper or foil on a baking sheet and wrap it in plastic wrap and put it flat in the freezer. Yes, it will keep!

But I won’t leaving you hanging...I’ve got a couple great recipes coming up next (pie crackers and apple pie) to help you put that crust to good use! Check back soon! J