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A busy scientist cooks from scratch.

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All-Butter Pie Crust

December 10, 2017 By swaticarr Leave a Comment

Flaky, buttery delicious pie crust recipe for one double-crust, or two single-crust pies (or quiches). Pie crust freezes well, so you can freeze one half if not using and thaw overnight in the fridge next time you need it.

close-up photo of a single-crust custard pie.

I did not bake my first pie from scratch until September 2016.

Why not, you ask?

Well, I was afraid.

Pies looked so…complicated. The crust looked so difficult to make. There is all this talk on cooking forums of “pie genes” and how you either have them or you don’t. Sort of like the ability to do cloning. Some people just don’t have the right touch that it takes to coax foreign DNA into cells. What if pie baking really is like that?

What if I was one of those people who just didn’t have pie genes? Can you imagine the shame I would have to live with for the rest of my life as a cook and baker?!

No, it was too much to bear. I chose to avoid baking pie. But, finally, in 2016, I was so sick of eating bad pie, that I decided to tackle learning to make my own pie crust.

picture of a custard pie.

To tell you the truth, my second attempt at pie was not great either. But, this time, the crust was very good, but my filling — apple — was too runny and as soon as I had cut into my pie (after the necessary three hours of cooling), I had, instead of apple pie, apple pie soup. The crust was so tasty that K and I broke the sides of my pie off and dunked it into the apple soup, topped it with a piece of apple, and ate it as a deconstructed apple pie dessert.

On my third attempt, I got both pie and filling right. This year, I have baked a pie every weekend in November…and one extra pie for K’s birthday.

My friends keep asking me for my “secret pie crust recipe”. I do not have a secret recipe. My recipe comes straight from Chicago’s famous Hoosier Mama Pie Company cookbook, with one or two trivial modifications. The recipe below looks long, but really isn’t. It just looks long because I decided to include all the details a beginning pie baker would need to make a good pie crust. I really dislike recipes that say they are for beginners but then give so little procedural details that I have to look up almost every step and sub-technique on the internet. What is the point of a recipe like that?!

close-up photo of a single-crust custard pie.

Making, rolling, filling and baking a pie can seem like so much work, but there is no reason you have to do it all on one day. I often make my pie crust on Saturday morning, roll it out on Saturday evening, and then fill and bake it on Sunday morning. The pie crust fitted inside the pie plate will be fine in the fridge overnight. If you want to keep it chilled longer, wrap it in plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.

close-up photo of a slice of custard pie with the rest of pie in the background

My motto now is that if I am going to consume a quarter of my day’s calorie limit in pie, it must be good pie. I do not want to eat pie with gummy or greasy dough. I can also tell when a pie crust was made with mostly shortening, because although it feels perfect, it tastes of absolutely nothing. I want flaky dough that tastes of delicious butter with a hint of sweetness to complement the sweet filling inside.

All-Butter Pie Crust
 
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Prep time
25 mins
Cook time
35 mins
Total time
1 hour
 
Perfect, delicate, flaky, pie dough that makes one double-crust pie, or two single-crust pies. Although the addition of shortening will make a slightly flakier pie crust, shortening is tasteless so I prefer to give up a tiny bit of flakiness for superior taste. If you will be adding pre-cooked filling like custard to the pie, you will need to pre-bake and then cool the crust completely before adding the filling and baking again (with a pie guard or aluminium foil to keep the edges from burning. I use the same recipe for quiche. If I am making pie dough for savoury pies like chicken pot pie, I replace the sugar in this recipe with 4 sprigs of fresh (or ¼ tsp dried) thyme leaves.
Author: Thyme & Ginger | Hoosier Mama Book of Pie
Recipe type: Pie
Serves: 2 pie crusts
Ingredients
  • 196 g (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter, divided
  • 333 g (2¼ cups) all-purpose flour
  • 2½ tsps kosher salt
  • 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 Tbsp vinegar
  • ½ cup cold water
  • non-stick cooking spray
Method:
  1. Stir the vinegar into the water and keep in the fridge.
  2. Cut all the butter into ½” cubes. Freeze ¾ sticks (82.5 g) of butter for 20 minutes. Chill the remaining butter in the fridge until the second you need it.
  3. Pulse the flour, salt, and sugar in the food processor 5-6 times to combine. Add the chilled butter and process until the mixture resembles course meal, about 20-25 seconds. Add the frozen butter and pulse 5-6 times. The frozen butter should be in pea-sized pieces. If the butter is too large, pulse a few times, and check again.
  4. Add 6 tablespoons of the chilled water-vinegar mixture and pulse 6 times. The dough should start to look crumbly, like grated parmesan cheese, but should not come together in a ball in the food processor. Test the dough by squeezing a little bit of dough in your hand; if the dough holds together easily, it is done. If the dough crumbles apart, then add 1 tablespoon of vinegar, pulse 3 more times, and test again. Repeat this process until the dough holds together when tested. The dough should never come together in a ball inside the food processor.
  5. Transfer the dough onto a clean kitchen counter. Bring the dough togethether, and knead 3-5 times until smooth. Divide the dough into two halves and form each half into a ball. Flatten the balls slightly, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge to rest for at least 20 minutes (but preferably overnight).
    Rolling the Dough:
  6. The dough should be slightly cooler than room temperature when you roll it. How fast the dough will come to the correct temperature depends on the temperature of your kitchen. Let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes on the counter to soften it enough for rolling. The dough is ready when you can pinch the dough halfway into the dough with the index finger and thumb. However, if the dough starts to get closer to room temperature, transfer the dough to a plate or plastic cutting board and stick it in the fridge for 10 minutes. If the butter in the dough melts, you will have to start making the dough over from scratch.
  7. Dust your counter top liberally with flour and keep a bowl of flour nearby. Hit one of the two rounds of dough repeatedly with your rolling pin until it is twice as wide. Unwrap the dough and sprinkle the top liberally with flour.
  8. Roll from the centre outwards (rolling from end to end results in too much gluten formation which will make the pie crust less tender). Rotate the dough 1-2” after each roll to make sure the dough isn’t sticking to the counter and to help form an even circle. Roll until the dough is ⅛ to 1/16th inch thick and about 13” in diameter.
  9. Lightly coat the pie plate with non-stick cooking spray and dust with flour. Transfer the dough to the pie plate and gently press it into the pan. Trim excess pie crust to within ½ inch of the edge of the pie dish.
  10. If you are baking a single-crust pie, crimp the edge into a pattern of your choice. Chill the pie crust for 15-20 minutes. If you are making a double crust pie, fill the bottom crust with the filling and chill while you roll out the top crust.
3.5.3229

 

Filed Under: All Recipes, Desserts Tagged With: dessert, food photography, make-ahead, pie, pie crust

Lobster Bisque

September 4, 2017 By swaticarr Leave a Comment

This lobster bisque recipe is a dream: rich, creamy and decadent. And it is wicked easy to make at home. Make it for for guests…or just yourselves.

Overhead shot of lobster bisque plated in soup bowls and topped with chopped chunks of lobster claw meat.

K said that he couldn’t find even one thing to criticise about about this bisque. That means a lot to me.

When I started to cook — way back in 2006 — we agreed that he should be honest about my cooking rather than being blindly supportive of it. If K feels my pan sauce was just a mite too thin, or the salad dressing needed just a dribble more oil and dash less pepper, then he should — and does — say so. False compliments never made anyone a better cook. So, when K tells me that he could not find one bad thing to say about this bisque, I know the praise is true and it makes me happy.

…

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Filed Under: All Recipes, Fish & Seafood, Soup Tagged With: bisque, easy, food photography, lobster, New England, party food, seafood, soup

Steamed Lobster with Drawn Butter

August 26, 2017 By swaticarr Leave a Comment

Steamed lobster with drawn butter and boiled sweet corn served on newspaper for the perfect summer meal. Summer does not get any better than this!

Steamed lobster with drawn butter and boiled sweet corn served on newspaper for the perfect summer meal.

Nothing screams summer in New England more than a messy lobster lunch or dinner eaten out in the hot sun someplace where briny scent of the sea fills your every breath. Seagulls are squaking nearby. Lobster juice dribbles along your hand past your wrist and down your arm when you rip the claw away from the body. No posh French emulsion sauces needed, thank you very much. Keep it simple so the sweet clean taste of lobster carrying a hint of the sea is what you taste with every bite. Chase it with a bite of sweet, sweet summer corn. I did not grow up here, but I have turned into a New Englander. I even say “lobstaah” half the time. K makes fun of me.
…

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Filed Under: All Recipes, Fish & Seafood Tagged With: easy, food photography, lobster, New England, quick, seafood, summer

Crispy, Pan-Fried Tofu Drizzled with Sweet Soy Sauce

August 19, 2017 By swaticarr Leave a Comment

Quick and easy dish of firm tofu, pan-fried in hot oil to give it a crispy exterior. Served drizzled with a thick, sweet soy sauce and topped with scallions. The perfect dish in your arsenal for your tofu-skeptic friends, or for an exciting Meatless Monday dinner.

Firm tofu with a crispy exterior drizzled with a thick, sweet soy sauce.

It wasn’t until I accepted tofu for itself instead of as a meat substitute that I started to actually enjoy eating tofu. And that makes sense, right? No matter how much of the General Gao’s sauce you drench deep-fried tofu in, it’s still going to taste like tofu and not like chicken. Calling tofu a meat substitute is setting tofu up for failure. Because, tofu does not taste like chicken. Tofu does not even taste like poor man’s chicken. The texture of tofu is just too different, not to mention its unique flavour. That being said, unless it is steamed and dressed, or added to soup, I do not care much for tofu that has not made contact with hot oil. Deep frying, which excellent, is a pain, so I didn’t cook tofu much. That is, until I started pan-frying it. And then, suddenly, I could not have enough of it. …

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Filed Under: All Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: easy, food photography, meatless monday, one pan, quick, single pan, tofu, vegan, vegetarian

Whole Roast Chicken

August 6, 2017 By swaticarr Leave a Comment

Delicious, easy, fuss-free roast whole chicken recipe that you can make on a weeknight. And no, you don’t need a cast-iron pan. Any oven-safe pan or baking pan will do.

Whole chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika roasted in a cast iron pan.

The goal of every roast chicken recipe is to produce a bird that is crispy outside, perfectly cooked inside, and has succulent breast meat. Every cookbook author claims they know the secret to roasting a chicken that protects the breast meat from drying out into something resembling the texture of an old shoe. …

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Filed Under: All Recipes, Poultry Tagged With: chicken, easy, food photography, photography, roast chicken, weeknight

Evolution of a Food Photo – French Onion Soup

March 10, 2017 By swaticarr 1 Comment

Goal: Create a moody shot of French Onion soup Showcasing the Soup and the Home-Baked Bread. 

Step 1: Set up lighting (natural light from single window, side-lit), diffuser, photo background, props, and camera perspective

Happy with the side-lighting. I picked a 3/4 camera angle where you look down at your food as if you were sitting down to eat it. Yes to this background, camera angle, and props (bread). But, top-left corner too empty….

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: food photography, French, photography, soup

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Hi, I’m Swati. Welcome to my blog.

photo of Swati I spend all day developing educational courses for online and blended learning at MIT. I spend my free time cooking, baking bread, entertaining my two cats, and practising my photography. During the summer and autumn, my husband, Keith, and I hike and camp. Learn more about me here

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