Easy As Pie
Last night our (Mormon) Young Women’s group made pies.
When you cram one kitchen with nine teen-age girls and four adult leaders, all busy crimping dough, simmering fillings, and pulling pie tins in and out of a hot the oven, it’s pretty chaotic. It was amazing that we didn’t have any burned hands or cut fingers. One batch of scorched coconut cream was the only collateral damage.
Girls went home with their own creative pie crust with their choice of filling such as berry, lemon, apple or chocolate.
My main task was to demonstrate how to make pie crust. I’ve not always had great luck with pie dough. Over the years I’ve done a lot of stories with tips from experts, and I have a more than a dozen recipes all titled “No-Fail Pie Crust.” Some use an egg, some use baking soda, some use vinegar, some use lard or butter. But I’ve found through experience that they can all be messed up! I tend to have the best luck with the basic recipe I got back in high school Home Ec class — shortening (I use butter-flavor Crisco), flour, salt and water. One key, as I explained to the girls, is to keep the fat and the liquid really, really cold. I also like to roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper so that it doesn’t stick.
In the interest of time, we gave the girls each a store-bought pie crust to work with. They got creative with the edge-crimping. Some made braids, others went for a ruffly look. Despite their diligence in pricking the dough to allow steam to escape, a couple of the crusts developed big bubbles during baking. But, that just gave their pies more character.
Other leaders, Sandy Kariya and Stephanie Whipple, helped the girls make fillings, showing things like how to separate egg yolks from whites, and how to zest a lemon. Our secretary, DeAnn Morgan, helped the girls stay “on task.” Even so, some got a little crazy — what’s up with the whipped cream beard??
We had a request for a Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie, modeled after a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Some friends, Sandy Bentley and Cindy Ball, have a Pie Night tradition the night before Thanksgiving, where they served 22 homemade pies to their friends and neighbors. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie was one of their Pie Night hits. Because it requires chilling for 4-6 hours, and calls for ingredients that would bust our budget for nine girls to make, I made one pie ahead of time so that everyone could have a small slice. Since it’s so fabulously rich, a small slice is about all you can handle.
Here are my recipes for the pie crust and the Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie.
PIE CRUST
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter-flavored Crisco shortening
1/3 cup ice water
Mix flour and salt. Cut the shortening in slices or chunks, and lightly work it in to the flour with a pastry cutter or with your fingertips. The dough will be like cornmeal, but with some clumps, and blended in so there are no white streaks of flour. Stir in the ice water a few tablespoons at a time. You may not need to add all the water; you just want the dough to stick together to form a ball. Roll out the dough, always starting from the middle. Place in a 9- or 10-inch pie tin and crimp the edges as desired. Bake at 475 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
Reese’s Peanut Butter ‘n’ Chocolate Pie
1 1/3 cups Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses (divided)
2 tablespoons milk
1 8-ounce package Neufchatel cream cheese (cream cheese that is 1/3 less fat; found next to regular cream cheese)
¾ cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 8-ounce container of Cool Whip
1 chocolate, oreo, or graham cracker pie crust
Place 2/3 cup of the chocolate kisses with the milk in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high 30-45 seconds or just until melted and smooth when stirred; spread evenly on bottom of pie crust. Cover, refrigerate.
Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until smooth; gradually beat in sugar. Stir in peanut butter and whipped topping until blended; spoon evenly into crust over chocolate mixture. Cover; refrigerate 4-6 hours until set. Just before serving, place remaining 2/3 cup chocolate kisses around edge of filling.
— Sandy Bentley