Advertisement

Great pastry springs from simple crusts

 
Published Nov. 19, 1998|Updated Sept. 14, 2005

(ran TP NP ST editions)

Market studies show that most Americans are willing to bake a cake but won't make pies because they think it's too hard to make a pie crust.

It is more than a one-step process, but several new books make the job a lot simpler. All offer fresh takes on mouthwatering pies you'll really want to make.

Carol Walter's 25 years as a baking teacher are evident in her no-nonsense book, Great Pies & Tarts (Clarkson Potter, $35). The cover flap says she "takes the guesswork out of pastry," and at 500 pages there's not much this book doesn't cover. She explains, for example, why the right flour can make the difference between a sticky crust and a tender, flaky one.

The "primer" section includes techniques that can take you from amateur fumbler to cool crust expert in a minute. The step-by-step instructions are accompanied by full-page diagrams devoted to things like lining a pie plate with pastry, "fanning" fruit on a tart and "shaping free-form puff pastry."

Walter even shows you how to hold and roll the rolling pin to get the results you want.

She moves on to 300 lavishly illustrated pages of recipes that range from easy to almost unimaginably exotic, but she walks you through the hard ones so carefully that good results are almost guaranteed.

For pie bakers who don't need to scale the Everest of gustatory achievement, Pat Willard's Pie Every Day (Berkley, $14) is a great solution, a paperback of fewer than 300 pages. She doesn't approach crust making with Walter's missionary zeal, but she feels your pain and offers a whole page of tips for turning out a flawless product.

Willard's book has no illustrations, but it offers 118 delightfully varied filling recipes ranging from mincemeat to lemon, coconut to chicken. There are also 30 recipes for crusts made of everything from flour, graham crackers, mashed potatoes and breakfast cereals.

But it's food writer Marian Burros who takes the cake for solving the crust crisis. Her New Elegant But Easy Cookbook (Simon & Schuster, $25), written with co-author Lois Levine, includes a butter crust recipe you just mix together and press into the pie plate: no rolling, no flouring, no peeling. Just smush together the ingredients, place the ball of dough in the pie plate and press it into place.

Here are a few crust-making tips from Walter and Willard:

Chill everything, flour, bowl, rolling pin, shortening, rolling board for at least 30 minutes before you use it. You want the dough to be cool to the touch when you roll it out _ not cold and stiff but cool.

Keep the rolling surface free of dough particles. Scrape and flour again as needed.

Always relax the rolling pressure as you reach the edge of the dough, or the edge will be too thin. Don't continue rolling the dough if it won't spread. If the crust cracks as you're rolling it out, add more liquid. If it is cool but still sticky, it's too moist. Add flour, knead and try again.

If the crust shrinks during baking, you've stretched it too thin. Always drape the walls of the pan generously with dough, even if it wrinkles a bit, and don't pull up the slack to flute the edges.

Use pans with dull surfaces like Silverstone, glass or ceramic so heat isn't reflected away from the pie as it bakes.

Marian Burros' Simple Butter Crust

1{ cups unbleached flour

[ teaspoon salt

\ pound unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 egg

2 tablespoons ice water

The crust can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated, or it can be frozen and defrosted before use.

Blend the flour, salt and butter into a crumbly mixture. Whisk the egg and ice water together and add to the flour mixture, blending until the pastry is smooth and holds together in a ball. Pull pieces of dough from the ball and press them evenly over the sides and bottom of a 10-inch pie pan, using the heel of your hand to flatten. Be sure the dough is not too thick around the bottom edge. Don't worry about the patching, none of it will show when baked.

Simple Pear Tart

1 11-inch pastry shell, baked

Glaze:

cup apricot preserves

2 teaspoons water

Filling:

6-7 medium Anjou or Bartlett pears, slightly underripe (2{ pounds)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

{ cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position the oven rack in the lower third of the oven.

Glaze: Combine the preserves and water in a small bowl. Heat in microwave oven on medium 20-30 seconds or until bubbly or cook in small saucepan over direct heat until bubbly. Brush the bottom of the tart shell with a thin layer of glaze. Put the remainder aside.

Pears: Peel pears; cut in half from top to bottom and core with a melon baller. Immediately place pears in a large nonreactive bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. Do not slice until you are ready to fill the tart shell.

Tart: Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Set aside.

Place the pears cut side down on a cutting board; cut lengthwise into \-inch slices. Return pears to lemon juice. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and gently toss to coat the slices.

Fill the tart shell, making two layers of pears. Use the smaller pieces for the bottom layer, arranging and overlapping them flat on the shell. Arrange the upper layers by overlapping slices with the widest side of the pears placed perpendicular to the edge of the tart pan. Overlap other slices to form a large rosette in the center.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape the remaining juices from the bottom of the bowl onto the pears. Dot the fruit with butter.

Bake for 50 minutes. Lay a square of aluminum foil loosely over the top of the tart and continue baking 5-10 minutes or until the juices begin to bubble.

Place the tart on a cooling rack and glaze while still warm. Serve slightly warm with vanilla ice cream.

Source: Great Pies & Tarts, by Carole Walter (Clarkson Potter, $35.)