So I know the title may be a little deceiving if you think that I actually made pie. In all honesty – I made two different pie crust recipes and then turned them into cookies. When I was in graduate school, I first started doing this when I had some extra (pre-made…store bought) pie crust left over after making pies for a Thanksgiving feast football tailgate. We had a few solid years of really amazing tailgates in graduate school that were amazing and we went all out. My husband and I actually became friends while tailgating. All of my family used to call him Kevin Patron because he was always the guy standing on top of a truck pouring shots of Patron down people’s throats. Okay, back to pie crust….sorry….So I started taking extra pie crust and either coving it in cinnamon sugar or rolling chocolate chips into it and slicing it to make really really quick cookies. I decided to bring this strange but yummy cookie recipe back while trying out some pie crust recipes.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found making my own pie crust a little daunting. I feel like every recipe is filled with warnings about how many ways you can ruin your pie crust. It can be tough, it can get holes, it might shrink….the list goes on. So I decided I would really like to find my go-to pie crust recipe. I decided to compare two different recipes. The first one is from King Arthur Flour, their website has some really great recipes on it if you have a few minutes, it is worth browsing. The second recipe is from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s cookbook The Baking Bible. I treated myself to a copy of this book not too long ago and I’ve been looking for any excuse to bake something out of it.
The King Arthur Flour recipe is called All-Butter Pie Crust. It is honestly the simplest pie crust I have ever made! One of the things that attracted me to it is the simple ingredient list and the few steps.
The ingredients for this recipe are 2 1/2 cups(289 g) King Arthur all-purpose flour (scooped & leveled), 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons buttermilk powder (I didn’t have this and the recipe said it was optional so I left it out), 1 cup of cold butter, 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of ice water.
I used my new kitchen scale to weigh out my flour (298 grams) and then added the 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the flour. I cut my butter into smallish pieces and then used my hands to coat each piece of butter in flour.
Next, my baking buddy put his blocks aside for a moment to help me cut the putter into the flour with a pastry cutter. You could also do this with 2 knives or your hands as well. The recipe said that larger than pea sized pieces of butter should be visible in the flour.
My buddy helped me to add a little water at a time to the mixture. I used my hands to gently work the water into the dry ingredients until I could pick it up without crumbling or falling apart. In all honesty, the idea of dumping all the rest of the water in became too tempting to my buddy and our dough ended up a little moister than I would have preferred. I added a little extra flour to the outside of the dough before wrapping it in plastic wrap to put in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. The recipe says that you can roll it right away or chill it. While it was chilling I preheated the oven to 400 F degrees.
After the dough chilled, I put it on my dough mat (I should have added a little flour to the bottom of the mat & on top) and then I covered the dough with parchment paper and rolled it out nice and thin. Then I used a round cutter to cut circles out of half the dough and put them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top of them. The second half of the dough I covered in chocolate chips and rolled it like a jelly roll and sliced it. I put these on a separate baking sheet with parchment paper because I knew these would take longer to bake.
I baked the cinnamon sugar cookies for 8-10 minutes until the dough was puffy and slightly browned. I baked the chocolate rolls for about 15-18 minutes until the dough was puffy and slightly browned.
Moving on to the second recipe, it is the opposite of the first recipe. It has many more ingredients and many more steps. I had to read the recipe 3 or 4 times before I made it to make sure I totally understood all the directions. The name of this Baking Bible recipe is Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust.
The ingredients for this recipe are 6 tablespoon cold butter, 1 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (145 grams) pasty flour (2 parts all-purpose flour and 1 part cake flour), 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 cup cold cream cheese, 1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream, 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar. In all honesty, looking back at these ingredients now I realize that I cut quite a few corners – white vinegar for cider vinegar, used a baking powder with aluminum instead of aluminum free, all purpose flour….maybe I should try this one again another day and report back results – haha oops….
You may have noticed that the dry ingredients are all in a ziplock bag. The recipe calls for the dry ingredients to all be put in bag and frozen for 30 minutes while the butter is also cut into small pieces, wrapped up and frozen as well.
After 30 minutes of freezer time, I dumped the dry ingredients into the bowl of a food processor, but held onto the plastic bag for later. Then I added the cold cream cheese to the dry ingredients and pulsed it together for 20 seconds. Then I added the frozen butter and pulsed it until the butter is no bigger than the size of peas (about 10 pulses). Next, I dumped in the heavy cream and vinegar and pulsed about 5-6 times.
All the ingredients are then dumped back into the ziplock bag from the beginning and sealed shut. Using the base of your palm and then knuckles of your hand, you take turns kneading and pressing the ingredients in the bag until they mostly hold together in 1 piece (I think I should have kneaded in the bag a little bit longer). Then I dumped the mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and used a folding technique with the plastic wrap to finish the kneading. You are looking for the dough to seem slightly stretchy when pulled with your hands.
After the dough is cohesive I wrapped it up in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 45 minutes. I preheated the oven to 400 F degrees while it was chilling. I then pulled the dough out and used my dough rolling mat and parchment paper to roll the dough thin. I used my round cutter again to cut circles and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and baked them on a parchment paper baking sheet. I also rolled the second half of the dough with chocolate chips and sliced them and baked them also.
The results of each dough were pretty different. The King Arthur dough ended up large and puffy with a very soft and tender texture. The Baking Bible dough ended up crisp and flaky with a more interesting and complex flavor but not quite as much rise. All of the cookies were very yummy and tasty but both batches had their own flaws and successes.
Final Thoughts:
- If I had to pick one of these pie crusts to make again today I would pick the All Butter Pie Crust from King Arthur Flour for its simplicity and ease (I would add less water this time)
- I need to make the Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust again, this time making sure I have all the perfect ingredients to see if it has a different result
- I should probably bake and share a complete pie recipe soon
Recipe: All Butter Pie Crust
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups (289 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold butter
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
Instructions:
- Whisk together flour and salt.
- Dice the butter into small cubes and add to the flour mixture. Coat all the butter in flour. Work the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, 2 knives or your hands. There should be larger than pea sized pieces of butter visible.
- Drizzle the ice water into the dough and work with your hands to gather the mixture together until it can be picked up with your hand and not crumble. Keep adding water until your reach this stage.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle your work surface with a small amount of flour and roll the dough thin.
- Use in your favorite pie recipe or create pie crust cookies by cutting and topping with cinnamon sugar or add chocolate chips on top, roll and slice – Bake on a parchment paper lined baking tray at 400 F degrees until the cookies are fluffy and browned all over.
- Enjoy!
Recipe: Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust
Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons cold butter
- 1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon pastry flour (145 g)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
- 1/4 cup cold cream cheese
- 1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar
Instructions:
- Cut the butter into small cubes and wrap in plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Add the pastry flour, salt and baking powder to a gallon sized ziplock bag and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- In the bowl of a food processor add the cold dry ingredients and the cold cream cheese and process for 20 seconds. Add the frozen butter and pulse about 10 times until the butter is the size of peas. Add the heavy cream and vinegar and pulse until combined about 5 pulses.
- Put the crumbly mixture back into the ziplock bag and seal it shut. Using your hand press and knead the mixture until it mostly stays together in one mass.
- Dump the mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and use the sides of the plastic wrap to finish kneading until the dough stretches slightly with pulled. Wrap in the plastic and chill for 45 minutes.
- Sprinkle your work surface with a small amount of flour and roll the dough thin.
- Use in your favorite pie recipe or create pie crust cookies by cutting and topping with cinnamon sugar or add chocolate chips on top, roll and slice – Bake on a parchment paper lined baking tray at 400 F degrees until the cookies are fluffy and browned all over.
- Enjoy!
Recipes adapted from King Arthur Flour and The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum
Allie and the Oven 