Recipe: Basic Short Crust and Julia Child's Pie Crust (pie crusts using cake flour)

Hello Hasline,

You can replace a portion of the flour in any reliable pie crust recipe with cake flour. Here are a couple of recipes and a some suggestions for you.

BASIC SHORT CRUST
rec.food.cooking/Robb in Cleveland (1999)
Yields 1 (9-10-inch) pie crust. Double recipe for a two crust pie.

1 1/3 cups pastry flour
(or half all-purpose, half cake flour)
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (Crisco)
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-5 tablespoons ice water

Refrigerate shortening until hard. Cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Combine flour and salt in large mixing bowl. Toss in cubes of shortening until well coated with flour. Cut shortening into flour mixture using a pastry blender until the texture of small peas. Chill mixture 1/2 hour. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing lightly with fork to distribute evenly. After adding 4 tablespoons water, test mixture by pressing together. If it forms a ball, omit remaining tablespoon water.

If not, add additional water until ball can be formed. Press mixture gently into ball and shape into flattened disk on large piece of plastic wrap. Wrap securely and refrigerate 1/2 hour. Roll pastry between sheets of plastic wrap or waxed paper, dusting only slightly with additional flour to prevent sticking. Fold pastry in 1/2 and gently place over 1/2 of pie plate. Unfold and fit pastry securely into pie plate. Flute edges. Chill well before baking.

rec.food.cooking/Lous (2001)
When I make pie crust I use 1/3 cake flour to 2/3 all purpose. Give a much flakier crust that is easier to work.

JULIA CHILD'S PIE CRUST
rec.food.cooking/Vox Humana (2002)

As Martha Stewart would say "Make them cold. Bake them hot." How you approach pie pastry depends on what kind of fat you use. Most US home bakers use hydrogenated vegetable fat (Crisco) because it is solid at room temperature and make the pastry easy to roll out. Unfortunately shortening doesn't add any flavor and can leave an unpleasant coating in the mouth. Butter is more flavorful but makes the pastry a little harder to manipulate. The second consideration is flour. You want to avoid gluten formation so it is better to use a low protein flour. You can use pastry flour, a soft southern all-purpose flour like White Lily or Martha White, or a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour. It is also important to cut the fat into the flour so small particles of fat (the size of small peas) are coated with flour. Add enough water to bring the dough together and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes so that the gluten relaxes and the liquid has a chance to equalize in the dough. The best recipe that I have found is the one in Julia Child's "The Way to Cook." She uses a combination of butter and shortening and a mixture of flours. The pastry is made in a food processor. - Vox

1 1/2 sticks butter (6 oz.)
1/4 cup shortening (2 oz)
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons sugar (if making a savory dish, omit the sugar)
1/4 cup ice water and a little more if necessary

Cut the butter into small pieces. Chill the butter, flours, and shortening in the freezer until very cold. Put the flours, salt, and butter into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to cut the butter into pieces the size of small peas. The mixture should be very lumpy. If in doubt, error on the conservative side and do not over process. Add the cold shortening to the bowl and drizzle in the water a little at a time while pulsing the machine. Stop adding water and pulsing when the dough forms lumps the size of English walnuts. Do not mix until the dough comes together in a ball!

Dump the contents of the bowl onto a floured surface and smear the lumps with the heel of you hand. Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap with plastic film and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to two days.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let warm for a few minutes if necessary. Cut into two pieces and roll each piece on a floured surface, rotating and lifting the dough often so it doesn't stick to the surface.

Happy Baking,

Betsy
www.recipelink.com