I just learnt from a friend how to make the flaky pie dough. It's a recipe from "Baking with Julia", mastered in my friend's expert hands. My friend's pumpkin pie had such a wonderful crust that I ate the pie for its crust. So I decided to try making my own crust today, and make it my first pot pie. Julia's recipe makes 4 pies. After quartering it, I got some weird measurements like this:
Recipe: Flaky pie crust
(1/4 portion of recipe from "Baking with Julia", make one 9-inch pie)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup + 5 tablespoons (TB) all-purpose white flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/8 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup + 3TB shortening, chilled
- 1/3 cup iced water
Procedure:
The procedure can be found in reference cited above, which is not repeated here. Basically, the idea is to keep the butter and shortening as solid as possible while forming the dough. The flour and the salt are mixed first in a big bowl. Then, the butter and the shortening are broken into small pieces (1/2"x1/2"x1/4") and mixed with the flour. It takes only a little mixing to coat the fats with flour. I use hand to break them into finer pieces, making sure that they are not totally melted into a flour ball. A lot of the flour will not come in touch with the fats. At this point, water is added to incorporate the flour sitting at the bottom of the bowl. Mix and push everything into a dough. Without kneading, the flour won't form a smooth dough. Instead, the dough will be clumpy and grumpy, looking very much like it's going to fall apart any time. But that's how it should be. It will be ok after chilling. Before chilling, I partition the dough into 4 parts. Each part is about the size of a tennis ball. Then the dough is wrapped in plastic and chilled in the fridge for an afternoon.
While the dough is chilling out, it's time for the filling. I discovered that the filling of the pot pie can be cooked before baking. That's a great idea. It ensures that the filling is cooked when the crust is done. Here is my simple first attempt.
Recipe: lamb/beef pot pie filling (for 2)
Ingredients:
- two mini soup pots (1 cup each)
- 6 oz cooked lamb and beef (3 oz per person)
- 2 teaspoons of herbs
- 4-5 mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 cup of leaves of celery, finely chopped
- 1 cup of sweet pea and sweet corn mix
- red wine 1 glass
- water
- 1/2 can of cream of mushroom healthy request
Procedure:
Boil meat with mushroom and celery leaves with red wine and water enough to cover ingredients. When vegetables are cooked, add sweet corns and sweet peas, and cook for a few minutes. Mix in cream of mushroom to thicken the soup. It should be a bit watery, thinner than a chowder. Add water if too thick. Make 2+1/2 cups.
Putting the pot pie together:
I decide to make the crust only for the top, not the bottom. One part of the flaky pie dough (a quarter of the recipe above) can make the cover for two 5" mini soup pots. Separate chilled dough into 2 parts. Roll out to 5" diameter sheets, about 1/8" thick. If the dough is good, there should be small chunks of fat, within the dough, that spread well into patches in the crust. Pour cooked soup into mini soup pots and fill to near top (about 1+1/4 cups). Cover with dough sheet. Poke a few small holes to allow airing. Bake at 450F for 5 minutes. Turn down to 350F. Bake for 30 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Serve hot. When done, the soup will thicken into a chowder. The crust becomes a thin layer that hardens on top. (For the health conscious, each pot pie crust has 3/8 TB butter and 7/8 TB shortening.)
The making of this pot pie was like all my other first-time baking experiences. I found myself peeking into the oven every 5 minutes to see if it's ready. I thought the dough was going to rise with heat. It did not. Perhaps I had not done it properly. Maybe it's too thin, or the soup was too liquid, or maybe there should not have been empty space between the crust and the soup. It also took 45 minutes (much longer than I was told) for the crust to turn brown. I felt skeptically suspicious of its taste when I took it out of the oven. However, when my husband and I sat down to take the first bite, it felt as if a whole choir of angels suddenly appeared around us, singing "Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!" Despite the imperfect appearance, its taste was absolutely perfect. It had the rich buttery taste with a fine touch of salt. The soup had evaporated to 1 cup in the pot, leaving the bottom of the crust cover crispy with the rich taste of soup. My husband and I found ourselves savoring the pot pie as if angels had delivered them from Heaven. We have not had such great excitement for a while. Though we constantly make every dinner special, some nights are just exceptionally memorable.
So today's page is dedicated to the friend who has brought such a wonder into our home through her skills and patience.
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