On Christmas Eve in Richmond, I made a pumpkin pie and an apple pie, using the same recipes that I did over Thanksgiving:
Pumpkin Pie &
Apple Pie. The only difference this time was the crust for the pumpkin pie. I've always used a vegetable oil crust recipe (originally from Joy of Cooking) for my family, to avoid all the artery-clogging, bad-fattiness of lots of butter. We've been happy with the results, but compared to the all-butter crust that I use on the apple pie, the vegetable oil crust has the taste and hardness of a cracker. Not as pleasing. This year I decided to experiment (really made up my own crust recipe) and made a pumpkin pie crust with half butter and half light olive oil. Having a mini-food processor at my family's house in Richmond made it possible (I wouldn't dare to hand-cut a butter crust without one yet). I liked the result of this, and plan to use it more in the future, as a compromise between healthiness and taste. Although for my few apple pie fans, I may have to stick to the traditional Mark Bittman Butter crust.
Marianne's Butter-Oil Pie Crust
Ingredients for a 10" deep dish pie crust
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter
1/4 cup oil
3 Tbsp ice-cold water
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Pulse flour, salt, butter, oil in food processor. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle with water. Stir and shape dough into a bowl. Press into a 6" disk, between sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Freeze 10 minutes or refrigerate 30 minutes. Roll out between plastic wrap to ~12" circle. Invert into pie plate.
For pumpkin pie, prick crust all over with a fork. Line with parchment paper and weight down with dry rice or beans. Bake 12-15 minutes at 425.
Pumpkin Pie Pictures
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| Dough pressed into 6" disk |
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| Unbaked pie shell |
Apple Pie Pictures
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| 5 apples piled into a 9" pie pan. Deeper pan would have helped |
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| Very tall pie |
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| Tall pie filled with apples |
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| Baked apple pie |
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| Rolling out the pie dough |
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