All Butter Pie Crust

My wife’s grandmother always makes pie crust with lard, and my mom used to make it with a combination of vegetable shortening and butter, but I prefer just a plain all butter crust.  As long as you don’t handle it too much, it comes out pretty much perfect every time.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups white flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 275 g unsalted butter, well chilled and cut into 1.5-2 cm chunks
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup ice water, added by tablespoon

Pulse the flour and salt a few times in a food processor until mixed.  Add the butter and pulse a few more times until the mixture forms pea sized pieces.  Add water a tablespoon at a time while pulsing the food processor, until the mixture starts to come together.  Dump the mixture out onto a board or countertop and pull together into a ball.  You can sprinkle a bit more water onto any crumbly bits if necessary.  Cut the ball in half and  pat out into a 1 inch thick round.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

To roll out, place one chilled round on a floured surface, or better yet, some waxed paper or baking parchment.  Dust with flour, and roll out turning and flipping every few passes, and dusting with more flour if it starts to stick, until your circle is large enough to fill your pie plate.  Transfer carefully to the pie plate, add your filling, roll out the top crust, and cover.  Trim the overhang around the edge of the pie plate, crimp the crust, and cut steam vents in the top.  Bake.  Eat.  Have another slice.

For filling, I’m partial to apple or peach.  For an apple pie, core, peel and slice 4-6 apples, depending on size, toss with a couple tablespoons of corn starch, 1/2 cup of sugar, and a couple tablespoons of cinnamon.  Maybe add the juice of half a lemon if the apples are really sweet.  For peach, blanch and peel 4-6 peaches, halve to remove the pit, then slice.  Add a bit of sugar if you need it, and 2-4 tablespoons of flour or cornstarch, depending on how ripe and juicy the peaches are.  Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce to 350 for another 30-45 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

This recipe makes enough dough for one double crust pie – halve for single crust recipes, or freeze half for later.

If you need to pre-bake (for single crust pies), prick the crust all over with a fork, cover it with aluminum foil and fill with dried beans, rice, coins, or pie weights.  Bake at 185 c/375 f for 15 minutes.  Remove weights and foil, and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Gluten Free Fudgy Brownie Recipe

There’s nothing better than homemade brownies.  I know, I know, box brownies are easier, but I think they taste like the box they came in.  Homemade brownies are a bit more work, but definitely worth it.  I like mine pretty moist and fudgy, and I need to make them gluten free, so here’s a simple recipe that’s been adapted for gluten free flour (actually, given that there isn’t much flour in a good fudgy brownie recipe, this is pretty easy – just reduce the amount of flour a bit, and don’t worry about whether it has any xantham gum).

One note on gluten free flour: there are a lot of different kinds.  For baking sweet things, make sure you stick with one that doesn’t have Gram or Chickpea flour in it – I like Dove’s Farm’s plain white, which is a blend of rice, tapioca, buckwheat, maize and potato.  Gram flour has a very distinctive, slightly metallic taste that is OK for savory dishes (and generally goes away if you cook it well enough), but can be not so nice in sweets.

Ingredients:

• 300 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 300 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
• 100 g unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 200 g gluten free white flour
• 1 or 2 bars of white chocolate, broken into large chunks, or a few handfuls of big white chocolate drops (optional)
• 1 cup of pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 175 c/350 f

Butter a 9 x 9″ square or 13 x 9″ rectangular pan.  The smaller pan will need a bit longer to bake, but will give you thicker brownies.  I like the smaller size, and I use a flexible silicone pan set on a cookie sheet.  Line the bottom of the pan with baking parchment, and butter the parchment a bit.  If you leave the parchment long so it hangs over the ends of the pan, you can use it to lift the brownies out.

Melt the butter in a medium heavy saucepan.  When melted, turn off the heat and dump in the chopped bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate.  Let it sit until the chocolate is melted, then stir to mix.  Allow the mixture to cool a bit.  Whisk in the sugar, then vanilla and salt.  Whisk in the eggs, then the egg yolks, one at a time.  It’s important that the eggs are at room temperature, or the mixture may separate.  If the eggs are cold, drop them in a bowl of warm water (from the tap – you don’t want them to cook) until they’re warm.  If you do this, make sure the eggs are dry before you crack them into the chocolate – water and melted chocolate are a very bad combination.  If the mixture does separate (because of cold eggs, not water – if it’s water, you’re out of luck… start over), you can dump it into a bowl and use a hand mixer to bring it all back together – not ideal, but it’s worked for me in the past.  Once the eggs are worked in, add the flour and mix until just incorporated.  Add the white chocolate chunks and or nuts, if you like, and fold in to distribute evenly.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan and put it in the oven for 30 – 45 minutes, depending on your oven and whether you’re using a square or rectangular pan.  The brownies are done when a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs (not wet batter, but not totally dry either), and the top of the brownies is cracked a bit.

Let the brownies cool, then lift out of the pan onto a cutting board and slice as big or small as you like.  Enjoy!

This recipe can also be halved, but make sure you use the smaller pan.