Pie de resistance from a crust master
Ruth Hall tells all about making the perfect pie crust
Published: October 21, 2009, 7:26 am
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Ruth Hall is not surprised when people ask for the secret to her pie crust. Her flour-dusted fingers shape about 7,000 pies a year at Becker Farms in Gasport, working four days a week with two skilled helpers. Her thumb scallops the edge of each raspberry, peach, blueberry and apple pie to seal in the juices. Over 40 years, customers have taken home more than 200,000 of Hall's flaky-topped confections, enhancing Thanksgiving celebrations and Sunday dinners alike.
You could say Ruth Hall has an 18th level black belt in pie. So believe her when she says: "There is no secret."
There are four ingredients: Good flour, Crisco vegetable shortening, salt and water. "It's the same recipe as if they went in Betty Crocker or whatever," said the 84-year-old great-grandmother.
What makes pie crust great is all in how you handle it, Hall said. That's the real secret.
Hall explained her time-tested techniques last week in her pie-making kitchen, while parents on school tours of Becker Farms lined up with school bus drivers to buy pies and cookies. She "puts the covers" on 100 pies a day by hand in the former farmhouse kitchen, with no special commercial equipment, unless you count the apple peeler.
Her professional pie-making career started at Hall's Apple Farm in Lockport. She worked there for 19 years, peaking at nearly 15,000 pies a year, Hall said. In a 4-H class, she taught piemaking and other bakery arts to a neighbor girl named Mindy, currently co-owner of Becker Farms.
After she "retired" from Hall's, Mindy Vizcarra persuaded her to bring her rolling pin, and fan base, over to Becker Farms. "It's been my retirement job for 20 years," cracks Hall.
Later, after her husband died, she married John Hall the apple farmer, who was a widower himself. It seemed natural, she said, as the couples had long been friends. They celebrated their first anniversary Monday.
She came to work, of course.
When she makes pie crust, Hall uses two tools novice piemakers won't have around. One is a pastry cutter, whose blades easily chop shortening into flour, essential to a flaky crust. (A food processor will work too, pulsed a few times.)
There's also her framed pastry cloth, a canvas square that she rubs with flour so the dough doesn't stick. "This is one of the secrets," she said. More of the flour stays in the cloth — and the matching rolling pin cover — so it stays out of the dough. (The Norpro model kit she uses is available online for under $20.)
Less flour is good, for too much flour is one of the enemies of great crust. "Don't do extra flour, sprinkle it on, just because the crust is sticky," Hall said. "Too much flour will make it tough."
Too much flour is a rookie mistake after adding too much water in the first place. Hall adds just enough water, depending on how dry the flour is, so that a ball of pie dough the size of a big orange will stay together in her hand.
"You have to know how much liquid to put in," she said, pouring a trickle of cold water into a bowl of flour-shortening mixture. "You have to put in just enough to make it hold together."
The ball gets squished into a disc about the size of a bagel. If there are cracks in the disc, Hall massages it briefly before rolling. "If you have cracks in there," she said, "you're going to continue to have cracks if you let them stay."
She rolls the dough out deftly, two or three passes until it's a football-sized oval. She gently passes her floury hands under it, turns it 90 degrees, and rolls it the rest of the way into a rough circle about a foot wide and an eighth of an inch thick.
If she makes a mistake, she'll re-roll the dough once, but not twice.
Hall gently folds the dough in half, not creasing it. That's to make it easier to transfer to the top of the cherry-filled pie pan, whose pastry lip has been moistened with water. Hall has already tossed the frozen Niagara County sour cherries with sugar and a cornstarch-flour mixture, and added a dollop of margarine.
Grasping the folded dough by the ends, she places it on the cherries and unfolds it with a flip. Presses it down into the fruit with both hands, firmly. Cuts the excess dough off with a butter knife as she turns the pie in her hand.
Then she crimps it all the way around, marking it with her thumb. It takes her less than three minutes, all told, to cover the pie.
"I took one lesson from Ruth, and it was good," said Amanda Vizcarra, Mindy's daughter, who runs the Vizcarra Vineyards offshoot of Becker Farms. "I asked Ruth how long it would take me to get the crust. She said, 'It took me about 30 years.'‚"
Note: The crust recipe here makes enough pastry for about seven layers in a 10-inch plate, or enough for three two-crust pies with leftovers. Especially if you're a pie rookie, Hall said, it helps to have more than you need. Hall weighs the flour and Crisco for precision, and mixes the dough from the mixture in two-crust batches, using about a third of the mixture for each.
If you lack a scale or only want two crusts' worth (top and bottom for one pie), try 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup Crisco and 2 to 4 tablespoons cold water.
Ruth Hall's Pie Crust
1 pound Crisco
1.4 pounds good flour, like Gold Medal
1 tablespoon salt
10 to 12 tablespoons cold water
Sift flour and salt together. Chop shortening into flour with pastry blender (or pulse in food processor) until lumps are the size of peas. (This mixture can be kept in refrigerator indefinitely, and should be used cold if possible.)
Scoop about a third of the bag for one pie. Add up to 4 tablespoons of water. Sprinkle it on and stir it up with a fork until there are no dry spots, and a ball formed the size of a large orange holds together without crumbling.
On a floured canvas or counter, form the dough into a disc about the size of a bagel. Flour the rolling pin and roll out the dough, about 1/8 inch thick. You'll need a circle of at least 12 inches to form the bottom crust of a 10-inch pie.
Take the rolled out circle and loosely fold it in half. Using two hands, pick it up by the ends and place it on the pie pan, so that when you unfold it, the pan is covered. Press the dough into the pan, and trim the edges off at the pan lip with a butter knife.
Fill the pie, including the fruit, sugar, thickener, spice if any, and margarine or butter. Wet lip of lower crust with water, all the way around, so the upper crust will stick.
Roll out top crust, following same directions. Place folded crust on filled pie, and unfold to cover. Press the pie dough down on the filling, firmly but not hard enough to make holes. Use a thumb or fork to seal the edges.
Use a knife to make vents in top crust.
Bake pie at 425 to 450 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn oven down to 375 and bake for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a knife blade finds the fruit inside is done, and juice bubbles thickly.
Apple pie filling
1 1/2 pounds peeled, sliced apples, about 6 cups
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoons melted margarine or butter
Toss apples with dry ingredients and scoop into bottom crust in pie plate. Add margarine or butter. Seal and bake as described above.
Cherry pie filling
1.4 pounds pitted sour cherries, about 6 cups
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons flour
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons melted margarine or butter
Blend flour and cornstarch in a small bowl. In a large bowl, toss cherries with mixture and sugar. Scoop into bottom crust in pie plate. Add margarine or butter. Seal and bake as described above.
For more pie tips and photos from Ruth's kitchen, go to blogs.buffalonews.com/hungryformore.
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