Crusty the Beginner

My area of the United States is hardly in the tropics, but it does get hot and humid here. Since my kitchen isn't in the air-conditioned part of my home, the time of year during which I'll want to do a lot of baking will be ending during the next month or so.

That's why I got to thinking recently about what baking projects I wanted to get in before the hot weather. And the answer in my heart was pie crust.

This may seem odd: good quality crusts are available in both frozen and refrigerated forms, and there are a number of creditable alternatives to traditional pie crusts for a person like me who doesn't need to bake many pies. Still, as part of my basic approach of building skill and confidence through terrified audacity, I really wanted to try the traditional approach. And last weekend appeared to be the time to do it.

I chose the "Traditional Single-Crust Pie Dough" recipe from "The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book". Since I'd need something to put into the crust and didn't want that to be a project in itself, I decided on the "Simple Cheese Quiche" from the same book.

I also sought advice from online friends, especially Princess Ladybug. It was emphasized to me that success lay in keeping both ingredients and equipment cold. I got a mental picture of spraying my kitchen down with liquid nitrogen.

Armed with information, I began the cooking day by refrigerating my dry ingredients and fats, my food processor bowl, and my rolling pin. (I didn't think about a mixing bowl and spoon.)

Stepping through the recipe, my first real problem came in rolling out the dough. My sheet of dough wanted to develop cracks at the edges. (I've learned since that this is to be expected.) I dealt with this by patching and rolling, patching and rolling, patching and rolling. At length, I had a dough sheet of the requisite size. To my astonishment, moving the sheet from countertop to pie plate occurred without disaster. I gently nudged the dough into fitting the pie plate, trimmed it, and crimped the edge with a fork.

Time for parbaking. I covered the crust with two layers of aluminum foil and filled it with dried beans. I then baked it checking repeatedly for the browning the recipe wanted. I also used this time to assemble the filling.

The only frustration I had with this recipe had to do with needing to repeatedly uncrimp foil from the edge of my crust to check doneness.

Once the crust was out of the oven, it was all over but the shouting. I let the crust cool (but not completely), added the filling, put it back in the oven, and removed it when it seemed to be done.

Look, I realize that, as a beginner, there's usually a limited amount of credit I can take for a dish that turns out well. I can choose a good recipe and follow it carefully, but beyond that there's a good deal of luck involved. Nonetheless, I feel that my crust (and the quiche it contained) were a triumph. I thought it was delicious, but I was anxious to see what my neighbor lady thought. She loved it and pronounced the crust to be 'light and flaky'.

To paraphrase Tom Petty, even the beginners get lucky sometimes.