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Thank you all sooooo much for the input and encouragement!
We tried the pie last night and it definitely tasted better than it looked! I'm going to try again this weekend (though I need to find someone to eat these pies!). This all started because my elderly dad's sweet physical therapist went apple picking with a date and brought the apples back to my dad because he told her "my daughter will make us some pies!" - Thanks for your faith in me, Dad!
I definitely did not take enough care about keeping everything cold. I know the importance of this step as I make pretty good biscuits and cold ingredients and a cold bowl is key there too.
I have also decided that modern, almost decorative pie pans are deeper/wider than traditional Pyrex pans. I think my 1975 Joy of Cooking recipe was probably developed for a much more modest pie pan hence my difficult in coverage. Using a lattice top rather than a closed but vented top resulted in a sort of dry pie.
I'm definitely going to try the wax paper trick. I think that will give me more control and help get the dough into the pie pan with less drama.
I didn't like the look of the egg wash/sugar, but I do agree with the others here who like some sugar on their top crust. I think next time I'll try just brushing with milk to get the sugar to stick and will use white sugar rather than the turbinado (brownish) sugar that I keep in my sugar bow.
A quick run in the kitchenmachine, roll it out on flour, trip edges, freeze in baking pan, fill while frozen, preheated oven 350F, higher for the last few minutes if necessary.
I'm a good cook and a decent baker - but pie crusts? Too temperamental for me. I buy the Pillsbury ones in the refrigerated section of the store or a frozen one for the few times a year I make a pie.
I also have one of those little silicon rings you put around the edges to keep it from browning that keeps it pretty.
It takes practice to make good pie crust. I make a darn good pie crust, but it doesn't look like it was made in a fancy bakery. If it is properly flaky, it is very tender and it is tricky to make it look beautiful.
Tricks: I use really cold butter, and I hand cut the butter into the flour. For the water, I have water in a cup with ice, so it is as cold as it can get without actually freezing. You want those little lumps of butter to remain as lumps, not get smooshed into the flour or melted in any way. Use the smallest amount of water possible. Just enough to stick the crust together. Work the crust as little as possible.
And practice. It's not as easy as it looks like it should be.
And the final saving grace, figure out how to make outstanding pie filling and if the filling is super, then no one cares about the crust.
OP, no matter what you did to that pie, I have one that will top it. My neighbor's mother posted on Facebook about visiting a friend she hadn't seen in a while. She let her know a couple days ahead of time that she was coming and her friend said she'd fix a peach pie. The visiting day came, they had a nice visit, then her friend went to get them both a piece of pie. My friend's mother heard her friend gasp and went to the kitchen to see if anything was wrong. The inside of the pie was soupy. Come to find out the friend had bought a frozen pie and didn't realize you still had to bake it before eating. She let it thaw then put it in the refrigerator until time to eat.
After that, I bet your pie looks great to you, doesn't it? lol
one way to get extra flakiness is to grate frozen butter. That mixes to "pea size" quickly. You can also substitute vodka for the water, to avoid working up the gluten in the dough.
Yeah, I've done both those. I've used a butter cutter thingie, two forks, two knives, a food processor, my hands, and a mixer at various times. I've used butter, margarine, and crisco. I've rolled them out on waxed paper, parchment, and silicone mats, using both wooden and marble rolling pins. I'll try all sorts of things.
These days, I usually just buy a frozen pie crust for sweet pies. Sadly, those crusts have a bit too much sugar in them to taste right with savory things like quiche.
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