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Whoever coined the term "easy as pie," likely never tried to make a homemade pie. Once you learn the tips to making a flawless, flaky piecrust, the next pastry mountain to climb is to create a classic lattice top for your homemade pie. Fortunately, creating latticework isn't as complicated as it looks.
Pies are made to either have one crust or two. Single-crusted pies, like chocolate cream or lemon meringue, are created by lining a pie dish with pie crust and baking it briefly before filling. Both crusts of a two-crust pie are usually baked together with the filling. The top layer of a pie crust is easily added and can be as simple or as decorative as the baker desires.
Strawberry pie is the perfect summer dessert. Cool, sweet and refreshing, this pie is great for impressing guests or for a relaxing evening at home. You can give your next strawberry pie an extra kick with the addition of ginger ale. The soda adds flavor and sweetness, allowing you to skimp on additional sugar. Start your strawberry pie ahead of time since it will need a few hours to cool. This pie is best during the summer months when strawberries are in season.
Melt-in-your-mouth puff pastry or sweet dates stuffed with soft goat cheese offer a variety of finger foods to serve at church socials. Whether your finger food is hot or cold, friends and loved ones will love the tasty treats that deviate from ordinary. Prepare your favorite recipes ahead of time to make the church gathering a cinch. Include a selection of napkins or toothpicks to help your fellow church members easily secure their food.
The best fresh strawberries are usually available in supermarkets during spring and summer months but, depending on where you live, you may be able to find them year around. With a sweet succulent taste, strawberries make an excellent summer pie and the red berries lend an attractive color to the popular dessert. Using refrigerated pie crust saves the trouble of having to make your own pastry.
Coconut cream can be used in frosting or in cake fillings for a sweet, decadent dessert. Coconut cream is different than coconut milk because it is not as sweet and it is slightly thicker. The addition of coconut cream leaves you with a dessert that is full of richness and the distinct taste that coconut lovers are sure to enjoy.
The perfect strawberry pie has a bright, fresh filling and a crispy crust. Because strawberry pie filling is so juicy, even after thickening, it can be a challenge to get the crust just right. The trick to creating a crispy crust is nothing new, but it sometimes get skipped over by home cooks who mistakenly think that details like using ice water instead of cool tap water won't make a difference. By sticking to the tried-and-true basics, your strawberry pie with have a crispy crust worthy of raves.
Puff pastry is a rich dough made by folding and rolling it repeatedly. When baked, it produces a tender and flaky crust that complements a variety of dishes including Brie en Croute. Layering puff pastry with a sweet jam or savory mixture of vegetables, and then wrapping it around a wheel of Brie cheese and baking the entire concoction produces a show-stopping appetizer. Cut up wedges of the Brie en Croute and serve it on crusty bread or water crackers.
The foundation of any pie lies in its crust - the flaky pastry used to make pies along with various other delicious desserts such as quiches and tartlets. It is common for bakers to make pie crusts in bulk and save what they do not use for later. However, you can store a pie crust for several months in your freezer, and have it remain just as delicious by following the right storage procedures.
Just a few generations ago, a light and deft hand with pie crust was an important and much-envied skill. Today the wide availability of ready-to-use crust and fillings has made it easy enough for most bakers to make a decent pie. Mastering a few simple techniques for decorative pie crust will make each pie distinctive and provide a "homemade" appearance, even if the ingredients have been purchased prepackaged.
Kolaches are one of the many pastries that have come to America from Europe during the great waves of 19th and 20th century immigration. They originate in the Czech and Slovak territories of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, and consist of a sweet pastry dough filled with poppy seeds, prunes, cream cheese or seasonal fruit. They are regionally popular in places settled by Czech immigrants, including Texas, Nevada and Minnesota. Like many other pastries, the easiest way to prepare them is to make the dough ahead of time, and then fill and bake them as needed.
While many materials can be used to thicken fruit juice, cornstarch is particularly effective. It thickens quickly and enhances the flavor of the fruit itself, which makes it an ideal choice for thickening strawberry pie. Prepare the pie one day in advance to ensure enough time for the filling to set before serving. Serve the pie alone or with whipped cream.
For those who enjoy fruit-filled baked goods, there's nothing like biting into pies and cakes with fruit hidden inside that oozes out when you bite into it. Fruit fillings meant for pies are commonly used for adding to other baked goods as well. If you enjoy the taste of raspberries, raspberry pie is easy to make with prepared filling. If you're not in the mood for pie, the filling can be used as a sweet and tart layer in the middle of cake.
Though pie crust is relatively simple to make, the process is often the only thing that stands in the way of delicious homemade pies and pastries. If you find yourself wary of making a fresh batch of pie crust each time you're craving a quiche, consider making your dough in large batches and storing it for future use. Store your crusts individually and remove as many as you need for your recipe. This method is particularly useful around holidays, when pies seem a necessity for every occasion.
As the last days of spring melt into summer, thoughts turn to juicy ripe strawberries beckoning from the produce aisle. While eating fresh berries is convenient and tasty, sometimes only a sweeter approach will fulfill a strawberry craving. Baked strawberry pie takes advantage of the abundance of berries and satisfies a sweet tooth.
Using canola oil in the place of butter in your pie crust recipes can cut the amount of fat in your pie, giving you a somewhat healthier pie crust. Canola oil will also give your pie crust more of the good fat that your body needs, as opposed to the unhealthy fat you get from butter. The use of skim milk will also reduce unhealthy fat and calories.
Strawberry pie is a sign of spring coming to an end and summer months coming in. Strawberries are available for harvest in the early summer months, often making the pie sweeter than using store-bought berries. Try to pick your own berries for the freshest tasting pie. The strawberry's sweetness allows versatility in pie crusts, helping even the most novice baker to create a masterpiece.
Making a pie crust requires a lot of work. Therefore, creating a pie crust in advance of the actual date needed, provides a similar convenience to using a frozen crust. Certain ingredient combinations allow you to make the crust up to three months in advance. Once you are ready to use the crust, remove it from the freezer, thaw it and use it.
Making pie crust is a basic cooking technique, but there is a difference between good pie crust and adequate pie crust. According to finecooking.com, the secret ingredient for a perfect pie crust is good butter, particularly the rich and creamy European-type butters. Hand rubbing cold butter into the mixture leads to the flaky-type finish that is normally achieved by adding lard to pie crust. Once you master the art of making pie crust, you will be able to bake perfect savory or sweet pies in next to no time.
Keeping a pie crust flaky involves three factors: fat distribution, low gluten development and preventing sogginess while the pie bakes. You want to make sure the fat you use is not over-mixed in the dough. Over-mixing will produce a mealy crust. Gluten development will make the crust chewy. Sogginess can be avoided by either providing a barrier in fruit pies or preventing the canned fillings from boiling the crust.
Don't let the fear of making handmade pie dough keep you from baking a homemade cherry pie for a dinner party or holiday get-together. You can create a flaky, golden pie crust with just a few basic baking ingredients. If you're preparing for a large gathering, save time by making the pie crust a day or two ahead and storing it in your refrigerator.
Chicken pot pies make for delicious dinners. You can buy them frozen for a quick meal, but making them yourself will allow you to add the ingredients you love. Making your own chicken pot pie crust is what makes the homemade dish better than frozen versions. Cooking a pot pie crust is not as difficult as it may sound and is worth the effort.
Expert bakers can achieve the flaky, tender texture of a good pie crust with just the basic ingredients of flour, salt, fat and water, but the addition of vinegar helps even a first-time pie maker create a flaky crust. The acidity of vinegar reduces gluten in the dough, making it more flaky and tender. The dough will also roll out more easily and shrink less during baking. Some pie crust recipes include vinegar, but you can easily modify your tried-and-true family recipe to incorporate this trick for a flaky crust.
A pie crust is a common and versatile component of many favorite recipes, from traditional dessert pies to potpies and shepherd's pies. Making a flaky pie crust at home is easy, and the same recipe can be used for either sweet or savory meals. Pie crusts do not need to be baked ahead of time for most recipes.
One of the many problems associated with baking a pie is finding that your pie crust shrank during the prebaking process. This leaves you with too much filling and an unattractive pie. The solution is simple and requires just a little extra effort during the preparation and prebaking process: Many cooks swear by an easy trick of adding beans, beads, loose coins or some other weight to the pie before prebaking (or blind baking) it. This trick keeps the crust from shrinking or bubbling up in the oven.
Wild raspberries grow throughout the United States, making them a commonly foraged pie fruit. You can easily create a delicious homemade pie with freshly picked raspberries, using a bottom and top crust. The top crust allows bakers to add decorative touches to their pies.
Raised pork pies have been around for hundreds of years. The traditional pork pie recipe we know today is from a raised pork pie that became popular in England during the Victorian era. This heavy, savory dish is as much a part of England's cuisine as fish and chips. With many ingredients and hours of preparation, the pork pie isn't a quick dish to throw together, but done well it is worth the effort. There are three parts to the raised pork pie: pork jelly, pastry and filling.
Homemade pie crusts elevate your pie above the level of a store-bought crust. However, finding a balance between both tender and flaky takes the perfect recipe. One way to achieve the perfect pie crust is incorporating cream cheese into the crust. The moisture in the cream cheese helps remove the guesswork out of adding water, while still keeping the crust light and flaky. Also, the addition of cream cheese gives the crust a unique flavor.
Baking the perfect, flaky pie crust can seem intimidating, if not near-impossible. However, if you follow these simple steps and tips, you can accomplish a light, flaky crust every time. Yields enough dough for a double crust.
