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But I’ve long struggled with making pie crusts: too soggy, too dry, too fragile, or too doughy. A crust is the foundation of a pie — its floor and, often, its ceiling. Even the most delicious filling won’t shine without a good crust to show it off.
There are a number of ways to make a crust. Do you make crusts with butter only? The flavor is outstanding, but if you’re not a pastry chef, or an experienced baker, an all-butter crust can be difficult to handle. If you use only vegetable shortening, the flavor is, to my mind, insipid.
Then there’s lard, which used to be the preferred shortening in biscuits or crust, because it was much less expensive and more readily available than butter.
Lard fell out of favor from the 1950s on, partially because of the association between animal fat and heart disease, and partially because the number of people who have easy access to fresh pork lard diminished with the centralization and industrialization of agriculture.
With the growth of the local food movement, however, and the emphasis on using all parts of an animal, nose to tail, lard is having its moment. And not just any lard, but leaf lard, the fat found near the pig’s kidneys.
When rendered it is a snowy white, and does not taste or smell overtly of animal fat, which is why it’s so good for baking.
Its creamy, smooth texture also makes it a good choice for a pie crust dough, and it is far easier to cut into the flour than hydrogenated vegetable shortening.
I haven’t used leaf lard for making biscuits, although I’m eager to try. But I am using leaf lard to make pie crusts, and for someone who usually sweats and curses while rolling out a crust, leaf lard has made the job much easier.
The crust rolls out like a dream, with no pulling, tearing or fragmentation. And it drapes beautifully when you move it into the pie plate, both for the bottom and top crusts.
I’m an occasional baker so the fact that I could produce a decent, homemade pie dough is all the reason I need to continue baking with leaf lard.
It did take some experimentation to figure out the ratio of leaf lard to butter, and I’m not quite settled on it yet. So I’ll offer one pie crust recipe with equal amounts butter and leaf lard, and one that is stacked slightly in butter’s favor.
If you are worried that using leaf lard will produce a crust that tastes of pork, fear not. Leaf lard has a very mild, and not unpleasant, flavor; and that flavor all but disappears when the crust is baked. So you’re not going to have a crust competing with the filling.
Even so, I would reserve leaf lard for pies that are heartier in flavor, like blueberry, rhubarb, mince meat or pumpkin; I wouldn’t necessarily pair it with such cream or custard-based pies as coconut, banana, lemon or key lime. But experimentation is the only way to find out.
Finding leaf lard is not always easy, but since we live in a rural area I would ask local farmers who raise pigs whether they sell it, which is how I found it. You can also find it online. Barring that, try regular lard, which is available at most grocery stores. But I’d look for leaf lard first.
Recipe adapted from The New England Cookbook by Brooke Dojny.
For the best pie crust you want good, fresh ingredients. So I used just-bought flour, rather than the bag of flour gathering icicles in my freezer, and a good quality butter.
For a special occasion pie, I happen to like the Irish Kerrygold unsalted butter, which has a higher butterfat content and is made from the milk of grass-fed cows, but any unsalted butter will do. There are high-quality regional butters, but I tend to steer clear because of the prohibitive pricing. (Kerrygold butter isn’t cheap — about $5 per package, which equals two sticks — but it’s still in the $5 range, as opposed to the $7-and-up range.)
2½ cups all-purpose flour, or if you want some whole wheat in the mix, 2 cups all-purpose and ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour.
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup cold or frozen leaf lard, cut into chunks
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into slices or chunks
6 to 8 tablespoons cold water
You could mix this all together in a food processor, but I just cut it all together with a knife and fork, and then use my fingers to break up the clumps of flour and shortening.
In any case, mix all the dry ingredients together and then distribute the lard and butter evenly into the dry mixture. At this point you can break up the butter and lard by cutting it up with a knife and fork, or you could use a pastry dough cutter, also called a dough blender. It should resemble a coarse “meal,” with pea-sized bits of flour and shortening.
Slowly add, a tablespoon or two at a time, the ice water, which keeps the fats cold and separate. You want just enough water for the dough to pull together into a ball, but not so much that it’s slippery.
The standard caution about pie dough is not to overwork it. It’s OK if it looks a little shaggy. If you work too hard to make it smooth you risk having a cake or biscuit-like texture when it’s baked. What you want is a crust that flakes, or sheets off. I don’t always achieve that, but I try not to fuss with the dough too much.
Once you have a ball of dough, flatten it into a disc and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. You want it cold because it is easier to work with.
When you’re ready to roll it out, it’s helpful to roll it out on a floured surface to avoid sticking.
But it’s even easier to roll the dough out onto parchment paper because it doesn’t cling as much. And when you want to put the dough into the pie plate you just turn over the parchment paper so that the dough faces the pie plate, and gently pull away the paper. It’s much simpler than peeling dough off a floured surface and then moving it to the pie plate.
Once you have your dough in the pie plate, follow the directions for the pie recipe you are using.
Another caution: use a 9-inch pie plate. I’ve used 8-inch pie plates, but if you are making a custard-based pie that uses eggs and liquid, i.e., a pumpkin pie, it takes longer to cook because you have a higher proportion of custard to plate, which means the center never quite cooks. A wider 9-inch plate works much better.
Follow the recipe above, but use 8 tablespoons butter and cup lard. This gives you, as you might expect, a more butter-flavored crust. Again, I would experiment with these measurements until you get a crust you’re happy with. I found a more buttery dough slightly more challenging to work with, but it also yielded a delicious crust.
(From The New England Cookbook by Brooke Dojny).
I was a little skeptical about this pie. Why tinker with the glory of an apple pie? But I wanted something different, and this pie turned out nicely. Surprisingly, the cranberry and apple mixtures blended well.
Cranberry filling:
1 cup fresh cranberries
cup sugar
¼ packed brown sugar
2 oranges, for zesting and juicing. Squeeze out the juice and you’ll have cup orange juice. Or just use store-bought orange juice.
cup orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
teaspoon grated nutmeg, preferably from a fresh nutmeg. Otherwise, ground nutmeg works.
2 tablespoons dark rum or bourbon whiskey
Apple filling:
½ cup, plus 2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
cup chopped walnuts
3-4 cups peeled, cored, sliced semisweet apples, such as Cortland, Macoun or Empire
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon milk
Make the dough according to one of the recipes above, and cut it in half so you have bottom and top crusts. Flatten each half into a disc and refrigerate while you make the filling.
To make the cranberry filling, combine the cranberries, sugars and orange juice in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat until you begin to hear the berries pop. Cook for about 10 minutes, until the sauce reduces and thickens. Add the orange zest, rum or bourbon and ground nutmeg. Set aside.
To make the apple filling, combine the ½ cup sugar, flour, cinnamon, walnuts and apples in a bowl. Set aside.
Position a rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.
Now roll out one disc for the bottom crust of the pie, and put into the plate. Crimp the edges with a fork. Spoon the cranberry mixture into the pie plate, spreading it so that it covers the bottom of the plate.
Top the cranberry mixture with the apple mixture, mounding the apples toward the center.
Now roll out the second disc of dough and layer it gently over the entire mixture. The next step is to fold any overhanging dough under the rim of the plate, then crimp it with a fork to seal it. If you have a lot of extra dough hanging down the sides of the pie plate, trim it off, and reserve it for something else. Or you could use it to patch any holes in the crust.
Cut two steam holes in the dough, or simply take a fork and poke it through the dough. I use a fork to pierce the dough in regular lines, which adds its own decorative element. Make sure that whatever you use actually leaves discernible holes in the crust so the steam can escape.
Brush the top crust with milk, which deepens the color of the crust, and sprinkle with the two teaspoons of sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake until juices begin to simmer through the vents, about 25 to 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool for at least 1 hour.
Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.