Since I usually like to take the easy route when it comes to cooking I chose to make a pie crust from scratch for my “Get Out of Your Box” challenge this month. Oddly enough, I found making a pie crust from scratch is easy. The clean up just takes a little longer. I announced my new eBook last month on 31 ways to live curiously and “Get Out of Your Box” in this post. How are you living curiously this month?
I’m a big fan of Pillsbury’s products and never saw the need to make my own pie crust. However, it’s one of those things in life I felt I needed to try at least once. For some reason making a pie crust from scratch feels like a rite of passage to me. I can now say I know how to make a pie crust and a very good one at that thanks to Chef Ina Garten. Ina’s perfect pie crust recipe is quick and easy. The key component is having a food processor to blend the ingredients. Sadly my food processor only sees the light of day about twice a year.
I had no problem rolling the dough out, and I even had a little leftover which I used to cut out some leaves for the top of my pie. The recipe makes two pie crusts so you can freeze one for a later date. Since I went out on a limb to make a pie crust from scratch I decided to also try a new pie recipe. My friend Patti just started a food blog called Butter Cream Sugar. She loves to bake and experiment with new recipes. Since Thanksgiving is in a few weeks I made her best pumpkin pie. Her pumpkin pie recipe intrigued me because it contains a very unique ingredient.
Can you guess what this mystery ingredient is spread on the bottom of the crust? I give in, it’s apricot preserves. If you are a pumpkin pie purist you might be crinkling up your nose at this, but trust me t’s delicious. The apricot preserves complements the pumpkin filling. My daughter thought it was the best part about the pie and my crust of course.
This pie will look pretty on your Thanksgiving table and it tastes delicious. Head over to Butter Cream Sugar for the recipe and lots of other delicious recipes.
I confess I did not make the whipped cream. Once again why make it when Reddi-Whip makes a great one, but maybe that will be a challenge for another day. I’d love to hear what challenge you’ve picked to step out of your comfort zone. Leave me a comment here or on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter and use the #livecuriously.
| Homemade Pie Crust | | Print |
- 12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) very cold unsalted butter
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅓ cup very cold vegetable shortening, such as Crisco
- ½ cup ice water
- Make sure butter and shortening are very cold.
- Cut the cold butter in ½ inch dice.
- Place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix.
- Add the butter and shortening.
- Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball.
- Dump out onto a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle at least 1 inch larger than the pie pan, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough so it doesn't stick to the board. (You should see bits of butter in the dough.)
- Fold the dough in half, ease it into the pie pan without stretching at all and unfold to fit the pan.
- With a small sharp paring knife, cut the dough 1 inch larger around than the pan. Fold the edge under and crimp the edge with either your fingers or the tines of a fork.
- http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/perfect-pie-crust-recipe2.html for more details and more of Ina Garten's recipes
Linking to: Celebrate It Sunday
This pie is delicious! Thank you for sharing it with my family.:) I made your apple bourbon cake last month and it was a big hit. Not sure if this is stepping out of my box, because I love to cook, but it was a new recipe to try!
Going to the WW1 museum this month is a bit out of my box, can’t wait to explore it!
Any time you try something new and different I consider it stepping out of your box 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I love anything pumpkin! I must admit I haven’t tried making the crust from scratch maybe I should “get out of my box” and try it….once:)
You have to try it once Keri. It’s so easy 🙂 You would love the pie too!