Thanksgiving Pie Crust

“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations.” - Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

After years of taking on too much and failing to truly enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, I made a bold decision this year: I'm only making dessert. While it's terrifying to know that the entire meal is out of my hands, it was also relaxing to be able to put all of my effort into one or two dishes. Those dishes were, of course, the greatest dessert ever invented: Pie.

I made the pie crust the day before and allowed it to sit in the fridge over night. I also mixed my pie fillings and refrigerated them in an effort to minimize Thanksgiving day kitchen time. This was crucial since my family's Thanksgiving tradition is last minute panic and microwaving the turkey because it's still raw. (I wish this was a joke, but it has in fact happened twice).

I followed my recipe perfectly, ensuring that all the ingredients remained cold so that the butter wouldn't melt. I was told this is crucial to flaky crust. I rolled out the dough, placed it in the pie pan, decorated it, and proceded to pre-bake it. This is when disaster struck. The pie crust melted. I can't explain it other than it collapsed in on itself like Jabba the Hut on a hot day. This left me no other option than to remake the crust and follow my own directions, butter chunks be damned! and the pie turned out wonderfully. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably cover the edges with foil sooner, but all-in-all the pie lasted exactly 10 minutes before it was all gone.

Flaky Pie Crust

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 teaspoon table salt

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, very cold

Directions:

1. Dice butter into small cubes and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. In bowl of stand mixer (or large bowl) whisk together flour, salt, and sugar

3. Add butter to mixture and use pastry blender to incorporate. Mix until the butter breaks up into small pieces but doesn't fully melt into flour mixture.

4. Fill one cup with ice water and drizzle over mixture.

5. Using hands or spatula gather mixture together into one large clump.

6. Gently knead into a ball then divide dough into two balls, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate two hours to overnight. (you can also freeze for longer)

#food #fall #pie