I love pies, and I committed to baking two of them for the family Thanksgiving feast.
I am a Queen of Pie Crust, but this time I decided to try out a "new" pie crust recipe that involved two things I had never used on pie crust before: my food processor (always made pie dough by hand with a pastry cutter); and vodka.
Yes, friends, I said "vodka"!
Apparently, water binds the floury bits and the fatty bits, but it can cause the crust to be tough when that gluten stuff forms. I had always solved this problem by making certain I didn't "work" the dough too much.
According to this new recipe I found, you can also solve this problem by making half the moisture (2 tblsps) vodka. The vodka is 60% water which will help bind the ingredients, but it's also 40% ethanol which burns off during cooking - and of course, it's virtually flavorless and colorless. The ethanol part is the part that keeps all that gluten-ey stuff from toughening up.
Hey, I was game, so I tried it.
I'm here to report that the dough was tasty and tender. I'll let you know tomorrow (after we cut and eat the pie) if it was also flaky and good after cooking.
If they taste as good as they look, I think we're in for a treat. :9
Here's what we have: 1) apple pie filing, then with the top crust on, then the finished product; and 2) cherry pie filling, then with the top crust on, then the finished product. That stuff on top is cinnamon/sugar sprinkled on when they came out of the oven all piping hot. Yum!
Now on this happy note, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!
Polla Filia,
J.F.
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