1. .Right Ratios: The recipes out there wrong on the ratios. Do you have to get the right amount of fat and water in the dough. See below.
2. Technique: use the correct mixing technique. The rough puff pastry produces the flaky crunchy crust. see below.
3. Bake hot: 400°F – 425°F depending on the deep dish or not.
4. Rack position: Most bakers put the rack dead center. But the bottom of the pie should be one rung below the middle.
5. Metal rimmed baking sheet: preheat the baking sheet with the oven
6. Thickener: are use the correct thickener. See below
7. Use glass or metal pie plate.
8. Do NOT dock pie crust unless you are blind baking it. If you dock a pie crust that is going to be filled and baked, the juice fillings the holes and makes the crust soggy
9. Par-cook apples. Then completely cool before filling the pie shell.
Bakers percentages
- Flour 100%
- Fat 70%
- Water 30%
- Sugar 5%
- Salt 1.5%
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Double pie crust
320g unbleached all purpose flour (2 1/4c dip & level you must use this method if you use volume measurements)
16g (1 TBSP) sugar
224g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
5g (1 tsp) Diamond brand kosher salt
96ml (7.5 TBSP) ice water
Method
- Dissolve salt in ice water.
- In large bowl whisk sugar into flour
- cut butter into half inch cubes
- Toss butter into flour
- Pinch each butter cubes flat into flour
- Stir salt water into flour and butter
- Mix the flour and butter into a dough ball
- Lightly flour work surface
- Roll ball into rectangle
- Fold each end to center
- Fold in half for double book fold
- Turn dough 1/4
- Roll the dough into a rectangle
- Double book fold
- 1/4 turn
- Roll the dough do a rectangle
- Double book fold
- Divide the dough in two; one slightly larger piece. The larger piece will be the bottom crust.
- Wrap the dough and refrigerate it at least two hours, preferably overnight.
- Resting the dough is necessary to allow the gluten to relax and allow the flour to fully hydrate.
- Allow the dough to warm up for approximately 15 minutes before rolling.
Follow the mixing instructions through three double folds. Since you are making pie dough not rough puff pastry you do not need to chill and do additional folds and turns.
https://www.finecooking.com/article/episode-9-rough-puff-pastry-tarts
Flours brands:
Unbleached - all of these flowers are in fact Central Milling Beehive 10.5% protein
- Whole Foods 365 all purpose
- Safeway O organics all purpose
- Central Milling Beehive (available on their website)
I do not recommend King Arthur all purpose flour for pie crust because the protein content is way too high at 11.7%.
I also do not recommend Bob’s Red Mill because they do not care enough about the quality of their flour to maintain a consistent source of wheat. Their protein content varies from 10% - 12%. So one bag can be like pastry flour, the next bag can be bread flour!
Fat: European style butter at 83% butterfat such as Pulgra provides flavor and is not too soft.
Water: 30% water is correct. The biggest myth in baking is add Just enough water to pie dough to pull it together. That is completely wrong. Do you need water to make a dough. Puff pastry is flaky and crunchy. It has 50% water in it. So do not believe that crap about sprinkling water a tablespoon at a time into pie dough. And if you don’t want to take my word for it, believe the master. I purchased the textbook from the top baking school in America. It’s 30% water.
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Thickener: tapioca starch is the best thickener or fruit filling
fruit filling with high water content such as blueberries, blackberries, cherries. This formula was devised by pastry chef Stella Parks. And it works every time. with the sugar you can go as high as 30%. It’s based in science and it works trust me it works if you don’t want to run he saw the pie use this formula.
Weight of the fruit
Sugar 25% weight of fruit
Tapioca starch 5% weight of fruit
Fruit with a high pectin content such as Apple and peach
Weight of the fruit
Tapioca starch 2% weight of fruit
