Day 129: Pot Pie
’Tis the season for hearty fare and comfort food and ovens that emit intoxicating smells of bread and spice. I am kicking it off with my favorite fall dinner: Chicken Pot Pie.
We’re starting with the crust today. This crust is a slight variation on a Cook’s Test Kitchen recipe they used for a blueberry pie. I totally use this for sweet pies as well, and it works great. The only con is that it doesn’t hold a crisp shape like thinner, drier crusts do. It’s not ideal for lattice or detail work as it will puff up more like a pastry and lose design definition. The trade off, though, is moisture and an incredible flake that melts into butter in your mouth.
Ingredients:
- 2 ½ cup Pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 12 Tablespoons COLD unsalted butter
- ½ cup cold shortening
- ¼ cup vodka (from the freezer)
- ¼ cup ice cold water
(note: I’m making a double batch in the pictures, so my quantities will seem higher)
Put the flour, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl,
sift them together with a whisk or the paddle attachment until they’re combined.
Cut the butter into 1/2” cubes
and add it to the flour mixture, along with the shortening. When you add the shortening, do so in clumps or cubes, just as you did with the butter.
Mix with a paddle attachment on a low/medium speed until the flour and fats cut into each other and get a cottage cheese looking crumb.
Turn the mixer on low and drizzle the vodka and water over the dough as it combines.
Stop as soon as it’s combined! You don’t want to over mix this or loosen the butter too much.
This dough will seem soft and “chunky” with butter, and that’s good – trust me.
Now divide the dough into two crusts. I lay out a piece of cling wrap on a scale for easier dividing, but if you don’t have a scale just eye ball it.
Plop a glob of dough into the wrap. (If you’re weighing, it should come out to 13.25 oz/ball)
Seal it up and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours before using. It can be refrigerated for up to three days, also, so you can make it well in advance of your meal.
This is an easy recipe to double. I typically freeze one set of crusts and bake the other. They can be frozen up to 2 months.