Summertime is the perfect season for pie making – so many sweet, ripe fruits to chose from, so many flavor combinations to dream up. The problem? The sweltering heat of summer can make anyone nervous about creating that infamous crust. But if you follow a simple procedure – this means planning ahead and giving your dough plenty of opportunities to rest – you will soon be turning out your very own picture perfect summer pies. And if you can nail the procedure of making a pie crust in the summer heat, you will be an old pro just in time for apple pie in the fall.
Cube your butter in 1-inch squares and portion out your shortening. Refrigerate your fats, along with your sifted dry ingredients, until all components are very cold. If I plan ahead, I like to refrigerate the ingredients for about an hour before combining everything. If I decide at the last minute to make pie, I freeze the components for about 20 minutes.
You might be skeptical of using shortening in your pie crust; you might even be tempted to replace the shortening with all butter. Don’t. You need both the butter and shortening – in equal portions – to achieve a perfectly flaky, flavorful pie crust. The butter provides the flavor and the shortening provides flakiness. If you replace one of the ingredients you will sacrifice either taste or flakiness in you final product.
Once everything is very cold, it is time to cut the fats into the dry ingredients. The key here is to keep everything as cold as possible, so minimal contact with warm hands or surfaces is important. Using a food processor is ideal, but if you are a little short on counter space – like myself – make the small investment in a pastry cutter. Work the fats into the dry ingredients as quickly as possible, until mixture resembles a coarse meal – some of the fats should remain in pea-sized pieces. It is important to not work the fats into too small pieces; small chunks should still be visible – these chucks will later be rolled out into the dough and, eventually, create flaky, delicious air pockets while the crust is baking.
