The very first thing I learned to bake on my own was pie crust. My grandmother, Mamie, taught me her recipe, and together we made a banana-cream pie (my dad's favorite). Since that day many years ago, I've made countless pies.
Today I made several crusts. We will enjoy one of them in a quiche this evening, but the rest will go into apple, pumpkin, and pecan desserts later this week. Yum! My grandma's recipe used lard, and many recipes I've tried since use shortening. However, my favorite recipe is found in Nourishing Traditions, and I'm sharing it here since many of you have asked for it in person!
Flaky Pie Crust
1 1/3 C unbleached white flour
pinch of sea salt
pinch of stevia powder (or 1 tsp sugar)
1/2 C butter, frozen, cut into chunks
2 egg yolks
3 rounded Tblsp cold water
Stevia is a natural, highly potent sweetener (I know - I'd never heard of sweetener in pie crust, but it's delicious!). Anyway, I've noted a substitution, in case you can't find stevia.
- In a food processor (a wonderful machine!), sift together the flour, salt, and stevia.
- Distribute butter over the dry ingredients, and pulse until it's broken into pea-sized pieces and mixed through.
- Beat egg yolks and dribble over the flour mixture, then pulse a few times to mix in.
- Have water ready, then turn on processor and slowly dribble in the water. Stop processor as soon as water is added, then turn crust onto waxed paper or lightly floured surface.
- Form into a ball and flatten into a 1-inch disk. Refrigerate until ready to use, then roll out on a lightly floured surface or pastry cloth.
enjoy!
-MamaToo
5 comments:
isn't this the best recipe?! we've also had great luck with the yoghurt dough recipe, but i've only used it with savory dishes and not with desserts.
have you had any major successes or major flops with other thanksgiving dishes in nourishing traditions?
whitney - it's funny you ask. I love the yoghurt dough recipe as well, but we have had a major Thanksgiving recipe disaster with this book...
When Obi-1 was a new baby, we were invited to (new) church friends' for dinner. We volunteered to bring rolls, and Mr. Kenobi thought it a good time to bring the sour dough ones in Nourishing Traditions. They take an enormous amount of time & effort (like 2 days worth, as I recall), and we barely pulled them out of the oven in time to nurse the baby and run to dinner.
Our rolls... er, rocks, were not such a huge hit. I still have visions of Al Van sitting across from me and trying to take a bite from his. Scary!
CRACK! ME! UP!
we had exactly the same experience when i made those rolls about two months ago! i made about three dozen hoping i could ween tim and jen off of marie calendar's corn bread. what an unmitigated disaster! they were immediately christened after the inedible pastries hagrid serves to harry potter and his friends. however, we've not yet brought ourselves to throw them all away (because they were seriously, like, two days' worth of work.) i still have a section of my freezer dedicated to housing our "rock cakes."
there are several thanksgiving recipes i'm thinking about trying this year (like the cranberry onion compote in lieu of cranberry sauce); i'll let you know what reviews they garner, if you've not already tried them.
ps: i love that i miscpelled "wean." guess what i do for a living? ;0)
Isn't it sad that we get attached to the effort put into making our food, so much so that we'd store it even if it's awful? We do the same thing! :) I wonder if they would make decent bread crumbs (maybe in a food processor?) for stuffing? Or, would that just prolong the disaster?
On a related note, though... the recipe for quiche (red pepper, mushroom, or zucchini) in NT is wonderful. We love it, and that's what I made last night for dinner. It's actually one of the quicker recipes, so works to take to new moms, etc.
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