A rolling pin, plain and simple, is a necessity for any well-outfitted kitchen. If you cook and bake with semi-regularity, you must have one. Nothing too expensive: there’s no need to run out and buy the 19-inch Matfer Nylon model that retails for $60 bucks. A good old-fashioned wooden pin will run you anywhere from $3-$10. For a couple extra bucks, you can get a stainless or marble pin that will help keep your dough cool while you roll it. Make sure the pin has a nice heft to it. The heavier it is, the less pressure you’ll need to apply and the less likely you’ll be to roll the dough too thin. If you don’t have a pin and, for whatever reason, refuse to buy one, you can use an empty wine bottle. If you don’t have one of those, then I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe you shouldn’t be baking. Maybe you’re worthless. Maybe you’re mother will never be proud of you.
As far as your work surface goes, obviously it should be bigger than a pie-plate. If you’re lucky enough to have an Italian marble-top island in the middle of a newly remodeled modern Hobart kitchen on the first floor of your $9 million, multi-level Wooster Street loft, you can use that. Otherwise, there are many options available. Good marble pastry boards can cost upwards of $50 but they’re beautiful and last forever. Because they stay so cool, they’re naturally non-stick. Wooden boards are just as expensive and not as effective for working with fragile pastries since you’ll need to use a fair amount of flour on the board to keep your dough from adhering to it. A fiberglass coated, silicone baking mat (Silpat ™ or Roul’pat™) is another great option but, yet again, a pricey one. When all else fails, just use you’re your kitchen counter top. So long as it’s SPOTLESSLY CLEAN, there’s nothing really wrong with this method and, in fact, I employ it myself.
Dust both your work surface, and your rolling pin with a small amount of flour. If the dough has been chilling for more than an hour, let it rest at room temperature for about 15 minutes or else you’ll have a hell of a time working with it. Roll the larger half first, since it’s going to be lining the bottom of your pie plate. Roll from the center out, in every direction, making sure not to press over the edges. Periodically, rotate the dough and add a little more flour to the work surface if it begins to stick. Do not ever “pull” at the dough, it will only pull back. Remember, you’re not making a pizza. The finished dough should be about 1/8” thick and 2 inches larger in diameter than the pie plate.
You do not need to grease a pie plate EVER. There is more than enough fat in the dough to keep it from sticking. Fold your rolled dough in half, lift gently into the plate, unfold and pat into position. There should be a nice amount of overhang. Don’t cut it off: you’ll need it to build up your edge. Place the pie plate back in the fridge and let the crust rest while you roll out the top half. When you roll out your dough, you give those glutens a wake up call. Letting it rest in the cold for another couple of minutes will put them back to bed. Roll out your top crust, fill the bottom and drape the top over the filling. Pinch the edges of the two crusts together and then fold the overhang back up, squeezing a little to secure, as you rotate the plate. Poke a few holes in the top crust with a fork so that the steam will have some place to go. Brush the top with egg wash to get that lovely golden brown shine. Let the pie rest in the fridge for another 5-10 minutes before baking.
If you are making a one-crust pie, you might need to do a blind bake. Generally, pie shells that are filled with pre-cooked custards and fillings such as lemon curd for lemon meringue need to be baked blind first. Most pumpkin pie recipes will require a ten-minute browning of the crust but don’t need to be baked completely since the pumpkin custard requires additional cooking time. There are a few pitfalls with blind baking (which incidentally, means that the crust gets baked with nothing in it) but they’re pretty easy to avoid. To avoid puffing, shrinking and splitting (OH MY!), you can either cover your pastry with a sheet of parchment and fill with dried beans or use ceramic or metal beaded pie weights. You can purchase pie weights and parchment paper at most house ware stores.
Be Gentle, Keep Cool, Leave It Alone
Making anything from scratch is a daunting, yet thoroughly satisfying endeavor. Not only does it make you feel good about yourself, but the food you prepare will 99.9% of the time, taste far superior to what you once paid a machine to cook for you. Follow the three golden rules of pie dough (they’re listed above) and, after a little trial and error, you’ll be guaranteed golden crust for the rest of your pie making days on this planet.
Click here for a recipe!
