Whole pie lattice angle upgrade#
Whole pie lattice angle full#

Here’s your second time- and effort-savior: Leave your rolling pin right there on the shelf you won’t need it for these easy press-in mini crusts. When you’re ready to make the pastry for your mini pies, simply remove the bag of crumbs from the freezer, portion out what you need, and add enough liquid to make a cohesive pastry. Want to make pie crumbs? See how it’s done. I keep a bag of pie crumbs in my freezer pretty much year-round - and if you’re a devoted pie baker, you should too. Enter pie crumbs, an easy-prep mixture of flour, salt, and fat that can be made weeks ahead of time and stashed in the freezer. The best pies rely on a great crust, but pie pastry can be fairly labor-intensive. Pie crumbs: a simple path to great pie crust First we need to make the mini pies, starting with the most important part: the crust. When you’re ready to serve, unwrap, thaw, and reheat briefly: 5 to 10 minutes in a 350☏ oven or about 20 seconds (per pie) in a microwave will bring them back to life.īut let’s not jump too far ahead. Once cool, wrap each pie individually in plastic, then bag them all airtight and freeze. Thankfully, you can make these pies well ahead of Thanksgiving they can be prepared, baked, and then frozen for up to a few weeks before serving. Wait, isn’t this pretty complicated? Especially with the frenetic rush of food prep in the days before Turkey Day, making 18 pies sounds like a daunting task. And no one (including you) over-indulges! Reduce Thanksgiving stress Everyone can enjoy one mini pie immediately, one later, and squirrel one away for the next day. So you pull out your regular (not mini) 12-cup muffin pan and use it to make mini pies: six of each flavor. You’re serving six close family members (including yourself) at Thanksgiving dinner you want to offer pumpkin, apple, and pecan pie.

Here’s what might be a typical scenario this year. What if you could enjoy all your favorite Thanksgiving pies - without a ton of too-tempting leftovers?Įnter the mini pie, a great way to showcase an array of pies and have them all disappear by the end of the day. Still, how can you bear to choose between apple and pumpkin, or strawberry and pecan? The problem is that for smaller gatherings (as many of us expect to have this year) the need for multiple pies diminishes. OK, someone brought a coconut cake, and there are always cookies, but pie is the main attraction of any Thanksgiving dessert spread. Pecan pie and chocolate cream and sweet potato and strawberry pie.

But for many of us bakers, let’s admit it - our thoughts skip right over the apps and main meal and go straight to dessert: pie. I'll put my pie on a baking sheet to catch any errant juices, and then I just put that baking sheet right on the pizza stone, so that all that extra heat is directed to that pie pan to make sure there are no soggy bottoms.What’s the one food you most look forward to at Thanksgiving?įor some it’s the turkey. My other tip is that I like to keep a pizza stone in the oven. That's a good option because you have to blind bake your crust beforehand, which means that you bake the crust by itself before adding the filling and baking it a second time. Pumpkin pie is very traditional at this time of year. What's a good filling if you're feeling nervous about soggy bottoms? What about filling? I watch a lot of The Great British Baking Show, so I know it's easy to get a soggy bottom on a pie, especially if you're using fresh fruit. So if somebody is in charge of a huge Thanksgiving meal and they're trying to kind of pace themselves, pie dough is a great thing that you can prepare in advance.

The other nice thing about all these little steps is that it's really conducive to breaking up the process. There's some flexibility with ingredients. Or toast up coconut and pecans and add butter for another shell. You can blend up some speculoos cookies with some melted butter and you have a shell there. I also have some tart shells that are not pastry. But I make my tart pastry in a food processor so there's a little more leeway. One of the things that's difficult about pie is the dough - it requires a gentle hand.

Whole pie lattice angle full#

LAUREN KO: I see what you did there! I mean, a tart is a great place to start! It's not as time intensive or technical as a full blown pie. SHEREEN MARISOL MERAJI: For people who are new to baking, where should they tart? This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. But if you're feeling inspired to go all out, by all means!

Whole pie lattice angle upgrade#

I spoke with Ko about some simple ways to upgrade your pie game. Plus, if you're a fan of puns as much as pies, you're in for an additional treat. Ko's cookbook Pieometry offers countless beautiful photographs of her 'bakes', accompanied by detailed instructions for latticework, tiled crusts and shingled fruit slices.