Hi Bold Bakers!
This is the time of the year that we make a lot of pies, but I want to ensure that you
make the perfect pie every time, so I’m going to share with you my master recipe for
pie crust.
It’s really, really easy!
We’re going to start out in a large bowl, and we’re going to add in our flour, salt,
and icing sugar.
Now the great thing about this pastry is that if you leave out the icing sugar, it actually
turns into a savory pastry, so you can use it for any kind of savory baking that you
like.
So take a wooden spoon, and mix all these ingredients together.
Into our dry ingredients, we are going to add in some cold, cubed butter.
Now when making pastry, you always want to use cold butter, because it yields a much
butter, flakier pastry at the end.
Now we’re going to go in with our nice clean hands, and very quickly we are going to rub
the butter into the flour mix.
We’re just going to do this until it resembles breadcrumbs.
You don’t want to spend too long doing this, because if you do too much with your hands,
it can actually make your pastry greasy, so just nice and quickly does it.
Pastry-making is such an important part of our baking, so I really hope that you nail
this recipe.
Okay, that’s it.
So you see that it starts to turn a bit of a yellowy color.
It just took a few minutes.
And as you can see, there are some little lumps of butter, and some small lumps.
This is exactly what we’re going for.
So in this bowl, I’ve got an egg yolk, and some cold water.
And I’m going to mix those two ingredients together.
Now we add in an egg to our pastry because it makes it richer, but if you don’t eat
egg, you can always just leave it out, and add in more water instead.
Once it’s all mixed up, pour this mix all over your pastry.
Then I’m going to go in with my fork, and just start to bring it all together.
Now, every flour is different, every pastry is different, so you might need a little bit
less, or a little bit more water.
We’re going to judge that in a few minutes.
I’m going to go in with my hand, and try and bring the pastry together.
Now just be careful wen adding in your liquid, because you can always add in a little bit
more, but you can’t take it out.
And you don’t want to end up with a soggy pastry!
So I feel that my pastry is a little bit dry, so I’m going to sprinkle a tiny bit of water
in there.
And there you go, do you see that?
Do you see how those few drops help to bring your pastry together?
Now, if you are no stranger to Bigger Bolder Baking, you know that when it comes to making
doughs, what we want is a nice clean bowl, and our dough all in one piece.
Now on the counter I’m just going to form my pastry into a ball, and flatten it out
a little bit.
And then I’m going to get some cling wrap, and I’m going to wrap this guy up.
Now when using pastry, you always want to put it into the fridge for a minimum of thirty
minutes.
The reason that we do this is because we want to get it nice and cold, and we also want
the gluten to relax.
Once the gluten is relaxed, we’ll be able to roll it.
At this stage as well, if you don’t want to use it straight away, you can also pop
it into the freezer for up to eight weeks.
Once your pastry has chilled, dust your surface, and now we are going to roll out our pastry.
Roughly the thickness that you want, when making any kind of a pastry, is a quarter
of an inch, so you get not too much pastry, but just the right amount.
This recipe does make one pie, so if you want to multiply it out, and also freeze some dough,
that will work really well for this recipe.
When rolling out your pastry, turn it every few minutes, so you know that it’s not sticking
to your surface.
And if it is sticking, then gently pull it away and add a bit more flour.
Now a very common problem to have when making pastry is that your pastry shrinks, and the
reason that it does that is that there is too much water in it.
Water evaporates when it gets hot, so just imagine it evaporating and shrinking your
pastry, so that’s why I say be very careful when adding water.
And that’s it!
Our pastry is rolled.
Now a very easy way to get it up—this is a good tip—is roll it on your rolling pin.
See how it easy that is?
And we’re going to bring in our buttered pie tin, and then just gently lay your pastry
into your pie dish.
This is the perfect amount of pastry for your pie dish, and it is nine inches.
When you lay in your pastry, if there are any rips or bits that you just want to cover
up, pop a bit of pastry in there, and nobody will be the wiser.
Now you always want to leave excess pastry over your pie dish, because you always want
to have something to work with.
So I’m just going to go ahead and trim this a little bit, and any bits that you trim away,
save, because you might want to make a little decoration for the top of your pie.
Now a little trick just to finish off our pie nice and neatly, we are going to scallop
the edges.
So put your two fingers on either side, and use one finger to pull up the pastry.
It makes it look so elegant and nicely finished.
Now when baking this guy, you want to follow the directions of the recipe you are making.
I am using this to make a chocolate chip cookie pie that is coming up this Thursday, so make
sure you don’t miss that!
And as always, I’ve got lots more Bold Baking Basics, just like this one, so make sure you
subscribe to my channel!