Welcome!
Call me a pessimist but I've got a feeling this thread is going to end up with formal recipes and lengthy, "how to" discussions of techinque. Which is fine. I loves me to read 'em, and I loves me to write 'em
But to address the questions as asked:
There's a soft of "ideal" crust for dough, called pate brisee in French. The usual proportions are 2-1/2 cups flour, 1 cup butter, 1/2 tsp salt, from 0 to 3 tsp sugar (Even with savory crusts, I recommend 1 or 2 to help the texture), and just enough ice water to get the dough to hold together (almost always an amount between 4 to 8 tbs -- which translates as 1/4 to 1/2 cup).
The traditional fat in French cuisine is butter, but...
Lard makes a much better pie crust than "vegetable shortening" or butter. Assuming you're using a high quality, fresh lard -- the flavor of the crust will be lighter and fresher, and the texture will be lighter and more flaky.
When it comes to vegetable shortenings, "New 0 Trans-Fat Crisco" is not nearly as good as the old. Not to put too fine a point on it, it sucks. A lot of supers have generic, old fashioned vegetable shortening.
Nothing wrong with butter. Butter crusts tend to be a little heavier. They brown better than shortening crusts, but no better than lard. They bring an extra flavor dimension which can be nice or superfluous -- depending on the filling. With a sauce or gravy filling, as in meat pies, it's pretty much superfluous.
Rule of thumb: Chill the fat and cut it into small pieces before cutting, pressing, or rolling it in. There are exceptions.
Remember what W. C. Fields said about water.
The hot trend is to replace a couple of tablespoons of water with vodka.
An old, largely forgotten trend was to replace a couple of tablespoons of water with vinegar. Actually, it's still pretty commonly used in egg crusts and regionally.
Another old, largely forgotten trend was to use baking soda instead of, or in addition to the salt.
Whichever liquid or combination of liquids -- ALWAYS chill it.
The less water and the less handling after the water is added, the more tender the crust will be.
Temperature counts too. You want to give the dough an opportunity to rest (at least 30 minuts and up to a couple of days) in the refrigerator after mixing. Then, you want to give it an opportunity to come to temp before rolling out. That means about 10 minutes on the countertop.
You can limit some of the handling, by forming the dough into a disc before resting in the refrigerator.
Flatter, larger pieces of fat, make flaky pastry; smaller rounder make crumbly pastry.
This means the method you use to incorporate the fat into the dough makes a huge difference to the final texture. A dough with the fat pressed and/or rolled into the flour, will make a flakier crust than one using a cutter, and a much flakier crust than one using a food processor.
Food processors are very fast, and good for bulk production -- unless you want actual flakiness.
Pie Crust is not the only way to go:
Puff pastry and biscuit crusts are also very popular.
If you've got the time and the inclination, you can make your own. On the other hand, you can buy excellent puff pastry from the freezer section of any supermarket.
There are a couple of ways to make biscuit crusts. One is to make, then roll out biscuit dough than you would for regular biscuits; and transfer it in one piece to the pie dish; another is to cut out individual biscuits and arrange them on top. A variation on each theme is to use pre-made biscuit dough from the tube -- I've given up holding my breath waiting for that good, supermarket biscuit dough, though. So far, no joy.
Hope this helps,
BDL
Last edited by boar_d_laze; 10-07-2009 at 12:36 PM.
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