With fall having already *officially* started, the air feeling noticeably cool in the mornings, hoodies and light jackets starting to find themselves more in use, and Halloween costumes and decorations appearing in shop windows, those of us who know and love autumn find ourselves eagerly anticipating the true harbinger of the season.

No, not pumpkin spice (insert item here.)

…Nope, not piles of crunchy leaves.

Nope, not even the Great Pumpkin.

My friends, we eagerly await PIE SEASON.

I have always considered myself more of a pie fan than anything, and it took some time and navel-gazing to determine why. If you can think of a better product of introspection, I invite you to go after it and write your own blog.
The reason I love pies so much is because they are my food philosophy in a pure, recognizable, and delicious form. There are few things that recall memories of home, happiness, and simpler, warmer times more readily than a fresh-baked pie (Sweeney Todd and Miss Lovett notwithstanding.)

At the same time as they are quickly reminiscent of simple joys, perfectly crafted pies are works of diligence, care, grace, and finesse. The texture of the crust, the color and appearance, the seemingly effortless affectations of vents and fluting- all under the bakers control, with the precision and premeditation of a sculptor.

Simplicity with elegance, made physical.

It is not without reason that the old idiom goes “easy as pie.” Pies are, from their very origins, meant to be simple, efficient, and entirely self-contained. Savory meat pies can be an entire balanced meal sealed into a crust, all baked together at once.

When I discuss piemaking, the following issues are usually raised:

1. Don’t know how to make pie crust/ any good recipes.
2. Requires a special pan.
3. Takes too long/ they have no time.
4. Why not just buy it?
5. They don’t like pie.

#2 is a non-issue. A pie is, by definition, a filling baked in a pastry crust. You can use a reusable metal or glass one, a disposable foil pan, or make hand pies, crimped and baked by the sheet.

#3 and #4 tend to go together, and involve a critical misunderstanding about pie. Fillings can be made days ahead of time, dough (if frozen) can be months. Few pies take more than an hour to bake, and as was stated before- a well-made pie can be an entire meal in one plate.

Those who claim #5 are a lost people- let us not speak of them again.

Therefore, this entry will mainly deal with #1, which is entirely reasonable and easily remedied.
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Pie dough is what is called a “short” dough- yes, akin to shortbread cookies. The reason it is called short dough is because the amount of fat in it (whether butter, lard, shortening, or oil) inhibits gluten bonds from forming as long as they might in other doughs (bread dough, for instance). Consequently, short dough has a crumbly, flaky texture. The amount of fat also makes it an ideal sealant- perfect for keeping the juices/gravies of your filling from running out.

The absolute basic short dough can be made using a simple formula:
3 parts flour
2 parts fat
1 part liquid

Those of you who read my series on kitchen math will have seen notation like this before- baker’s formulas are represented as ratios rather than recipes to allow for easy scaling (making different sized batches.)

This will create an extremely simple, all purpose short dough. Add sugar, it becomes sweet. Add herbs, it becomes savory. Switch the liquid from water to iced tea to juice to whatever you like. It will work. Towards the end, I will give you my personal favorite recipe.

Pie dough is also an excellent example for how the HANDLING of ingredients can make a difference in the final product- particularly the fat, in this case. If you’ve ever drooled the perfect flaky pie dough, or the melt-in-your-mouth crumbliness of shortbread, the difference is entirely in how the fat is worked into the dough.

As you will see in the recipe below, the butter is “cut” into the dry ingredients- meaning, it is worked in to the flour by cutting it down into smaller and smaller chunks. You can use your fingers, a pair for butter knives (if you are exceedingly patient), or a special device called a pastry blender (if you feel like getting one and pretending to be Wolverine.)

When working the butter in, if you leave relatively large solid lumps of butter intact, these lumps will form paper-thin layers within the dough, leading to the flaky perfection you seek in a pies top crust. If you work the butter into smaller and smaller pieces, the butter will melt more readily in the oven and absorb into dough, leaving a mealy texture- ideal for bottom crusts and shortbread cookies.

Here is my personal favorite pie dough recipe- with minimal tweaking, this makes an ideal crust for savory or sweet pies. It will make enough for one double-crust 9 inch pie, or two single crust pies.

Pie Dough

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon (30 grams) granulated white sugar (leave out if you want it savory)
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 – 120 ml) ice water or other chilled liquid (experiment with different liquids to get interesting flavors!)
Herbs or Spices as you see fit

Mix all the dry ingredients together, and cut the butter in until it resembles coarse corn meal (or some pellets of butter the size of peas.) Add the liquid and continue to work until the dough forms. Dump out onto a lightly floured surface and work into two even-sized balls. Flatten the balls slightly and wrap in plastic. The dough can now be refrigerated or frozen until ready for use.

When rolling, roll the dough out on a lightly-floured surface and rotate 45 degrees with each pass. This will keep the dough from sticking as readily, and it will also even out your rolling (as you will instinctively press harder with your dominant hand.)

Tips and Tricks for Pie Dough
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– The butter (and dough itself) should be kept as cold as possible while you work with it. If the butter is allowed to get too warm, it can melt into the dough too quickly leavve you with greasy, gritty crust. You can keep things cool by working quickly and lightly, and by picking a cold, dry surface to work on. Marble slabs are ideal, but expensive- a good quality wood tabletop will do fine. 

– Keep an eye on your dough. You do not want to overwork it- despite the fact that it is short dough, gluten bonds HAVE formed. If you notice your dough shrinking back after you roll it, it is being overworked. Relax the dough by letting it sit covered in plastic for a few minutes.

– You will want to flour virtually every surface your dough comes in contact with while you work with it- your hands, the tabletop, and your rolling pin. You do NOT want to overflour, however- in the course of work, the dough will absorb the flour and get drier. Therefore, use the bare minimum flour you need to keep things from getting sticky.

– The best rolling pin to us
e is… the one you like. Pins come in all shapes and sizes- the best one for you will feel balanced in your grip, comfortable in your hand, and will be made from material that is easy to clean and doesn’t warp. Wooden pins should NOT be washed with soap and water- instead, they should be rubbed down vigorously with a clean cloth or paper towel.

That’s all for tonight! Next week, I’ll discuss a couple of my favorite recipes, as well as some aesthetic touches that will really make your pie yours.

Stay Classy,

-BHB

Good evening, friends and neighbors!

One thing the profession bakeshop is never short of is mundane tasks- repetitive, dull, simple jobs that take forever and threaten to put your mind in a permanent torpor.

When it falls to me to handle on of these necessary (but dull and generally thankless) jobs, I usually find my mind wandering and ruminating on topics I had been reading about recently, or that current events bring to mind. Now and again, I’ll remember enough of my thoughts- or get to a pen and paper in time- to write them down.

These entries tend to wax philosophical, so if that isn’t your speed, hopefully I can offer something more appealing next time.

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The other day, I found myself having a brief conversation with the owner of a little deli near where I work. I was just coming off my shift, and we were talking about our respective days. I had just ruminated on the fact that 16 hours worth of preparation would be swept away in a banquet for about 750 people, in the space of an hour.

    The shop owner said, in a heavy accent that I have not yet placed, “It is a shame- they are eating and eating and never stop to think of who made it. They do not appreciate.”

    I nodded and, without really knowing why, I confessed- “Recognition and praise are great, but all I really want is to meet them- to look them in the eye and see that they are satisfied. I want to know I made a difference to them that day, and for them to know the face behind their food.”

    Altruism is a sticky subject, and one that philosophers and students much wiser and more educated than I have been fiddling with and working out for centuries. Its dictionary definition is “belief in or practice of disinterested selfless concern for the wellbeing of others.” In common use, it means giving of oneself without the expectation or desire of receiving anything in return- not even something intangible and self-bestowed, like a “warm fuzzy feeling.” In Zen Buddhism, it is possibly best described as being virtuous with no thought of virtuousness- doing the right thing, but not because it is the “right thing- it’s just what is to be done.

    If I’m honest- it’s something I suck at. Even my confessed wish to be recognized as the creator of their food and to simply know they are pleased- that is a reward, and thus my desire is not altruistic.

    I found myself thinking afterward, “Is that so wrong?” I am not a monk or a saint. Is it truly wrong to crave such a simple pleasure as the recognition of a job well done, or the knowledge that a creation’s objective has been met?

I don’t think so.

I have long been of the opinion that a creator or artist is blessed three times: first in the work itself, second in the completion , and third in giving the work away. Why would anyone willfully deny themselves such a blessing?

Or perhaps, it is not denying the blessing, but only the knowledge of it?

Thoughts worth thinking… but later.

Stay thoughtful.

Stay wondering.

and of course,

Stay classy,

BHB

Good evening, friends and neighbors!

Early this week, I was talking to my friend Karen at work. The day was promising to be hectic- we were two people short, and everyone was doing at least one other person’s job along with their own. I had just amassed my production list (a.k.a. my to-do list), and was beginning one of the jobs when Karen told me I was “getting in my own way” and it was driving her crazy.

“Getting in my own way?”, I asked, looking down at my station- a bit crowded to be sure, but clean and organized.

“Yes! You have things out for jobs your not doing yet, and it will take you forever!”

At that moment, I realized she was right- I had plates, tools, and all manner of things piled up on either side of my workspace, limiting me from a 2.5′ x 7′ table to an actual workspace of maybe 2′ x 2′.

I had worked myself out of working.

When I was in school, our chefs would constantly remind us to work clean, but two chefs in particular- Chef Tree McCann and Chef Annmarie Chelius- would remind us to work ORGANIZED, and have NOTHING on the tabletop that wasn’t important to what we were doing AT THAT MOMENT. It didn’t matter if we were going to be using it for the next thing, or picking it up again just as soon as we were done- if it wasn’t being used, it didn’t belong on the table.

At first, it seems like a pain in the neck, and a load of extra steps to take. After clearing away what was not immediately necessary, though, I found I had more space to use on the CURRENT task- I spread it out, and wound up completing it in a third of the time it might have taken me as I was used to.

Those who know me, or who have read this blog for any amount of time (thank you!) know that I have a penchant for comparative theology and philosophy, and that recently I have been enamored of Taoism. In a nutshell, Taoism is based on the idea that there is a specific nature and order to the universe, the Tao (the “Universal Way”) The Tao says that winters are supposed to be cold, summers to be hot, flowers are to bloom in spring, and leaves are to fall in autumn. When people expect things contrary to the natural order, or try to fight against it, that is when people have troubles.

I mentioned one of the key practices of Taoism in the title of this entry (typically in a horrible pun- I apologize)- wei wu wei. This translates as “Doing Not-Doing,” or more inaccurately as “Doing Nothing.” At first blush, many people interpret this as passiveness and inaction, when nothing can be further from the truth.

Wei wu wei is perhaps best described as “effortless action,” or “perfect flow.” It occurs when a person is so devoted and involved in a given activity that the action because as natural and effortless as breathing. Put poetically, it is when we can no longer tell the dancer from the dance, or the musician from the music they are playing. They are doing, without doing- refusing to let their intellect interfere, allowing the motion and music to flow from them as easily as a sigh. This comes from devotion, practice, patience, and the perfect mastery of oneself and one’s art.

Many cooks will talk about their “flow” or about “the dance” of a working kitchen- the motion of people around each other that looks like madness and chaos, but is in fact (at least in the best cases) a delicate choreography- every person in tune with what they are doing, and what their teammates are doing where. In a way, this is the same thing.

When you bake, focus on what you are doing. Let nothing distract you… and then stop thinking. Move in the way you need to move- no more than necessary, no less than required. Proceed through one thing at a time- the future will be along soon enough, and THEN you can deal with what comes next.

Stay calm.

Stay centered in yourself,

and of course-

Stay classy,

-BHB