Blog Statement

Life is too short to eat bad food! Sharing great recipes, farm life, stories and photography from our Northern California dairy farm.

TDM CCN Header

December 5, 2011

Pie Dough for your Pie Hole ~ 4H Cooking

We just kicked off our 4H cooking group meeting this past weekend; a group of 10 kids and one Junior Leader {my niece}, Morgan.  Remember the Mini Apple Pie I shared with you a few weeks ago, well that's what my co-leader and I taught these kids, but instead of the pre-made pie dough I used, we used homemade pie dough.

Homemade pie dough is THE way to go.  What a difference!  Flaky, buttery goodness.  The pie dough recipe is from the cookbook, America's Test Kitchen and it's super easy to throw together.  Your pie hole will be very happy.

As a Junior Leader, Morgan helped Paige and cousin Leila measure out the ingredients.























Bryce and his cousin, Jack made a great team with their pie ingredients.



















Lots of apple peeling, measuring, mixing and team work....



















Thankfully we had a couple of parents stay to help because in the midst of rolling out pie dough I was called away on an emergency...thank you Lisa and Cathy for stepping in to take my place and help my co-leader, Karen with the dough!



















Okay, here's pie dough for your pie hole recipe....

Pie Dough – makes enough for one double crust pie

2 1/2 cups(12.5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
1tsp. salt
2T sugar
8 T all-vegetable shortening, chilled
12 T unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/4" pieces
6-8 T ice water

1. Pulse flour, salt and sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade until combined. Add shortening and process until mixture has texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; cut butter into flour until mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs with butter bits no larger than small peas, about ten 1 second pulses.

2. With processor running pour 1 Tbs of ice water at a time thru the feeding tube until mixture starts to bind together. Place into bowl and form into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days before rolling.

TIPS:
I have everything chilled before I start including the flour, this keeps the butter and shortening firm.
Make a double batch and freeze the second one for later use.

Here's the recipe for the mini apple pie filling:  Mini Apple Pie Filling

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

Pin It

1 comment:

The Weaver of Grass said...

Lovely to see childdren cooking real food Nancy.