# Pie crust help



## carlaird (Jan 16, 2007)

My pie crust keeps cracking when I roll out no matter what recipe I use. What am I doing wrong?
Its cold when I roll it out on a floured surface
Am I using to much flour on my floured surface???
AND
When I blind bake (I HATE DOING THIS)
The sides swell up and fall
I have 10-20 dollars in coins in there packed up to the sides as well!
WHATS GOING ON!?!?!


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## qahtan (Dec 7, 2003)

To me sounds like not quite enough flour to roll it out, or the dough is a tad too dry....... qahtan


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

It's an old story for me, i'm always ranting about it, but you have to use more eye, and less measure.

Flours differ in their ability to absorb water, fats can be different from each other, even the same fat can be different. Some butter has more and some has less water.

So you have to make sure your dough is the right wetness relying on your feel and sight. Following a recipe exactly, blindly, is NOT good. Use your eye and hand, not only your scale or cup.

*how to tell if there is enough water*
When you make the dough up and form it into a ball, try to crack the ball. If it breaks easily and crumbles a little too, then it needs water. Crumble it all up, and wet your hand well with cold water so it's dripping, and flick it onto the dough. Try to press it into a ball again (don;t mix, you want to avoid overworking it)
Try again to break it - you may need more water, or not, but keep adding till it holds together and requires some effort to break, and it doesn;t make crumbs.

then, DON;T REFRIGERATE!
I know all the recipes tell you to. If the butter has melted a little, then you'll need to, but if you work quickly and don;t let the working of the dough create heat then you shouldn;t need to refrigerate. 
I find refrigerating is one of the factors that makes dough hard to roll out and to crack. I hardly ever refrigerate.

If you do need to refrigerate (like if the dough looks greasy), flatten the dough ball first, make the two crusts into two separate balls and flatten them, so they cool more quickly inside, wrap in plastic and just put in frige half an hour. 
If you leave it too long and it gets hard, you can hammer it all over with the flat of your rolling pin before you roll it to soften it a bit.

Then i roll between two sheets of parchment paper (or waxed paper) having lightly floured the flattened balls of dough first. You can also do it directly on the board, but this makes it very easy to lift and transport to the pie pan - yuou remove the top paper, lay back on top, turn it all over, remove the other side, and then lift the dough with the bottom paper, and lay it over the pan.

When rolling: Roll from center to farther edge, and don;t go all the way to the edge. (If you do, you make it crumble more easily). then turn an eighth of a turn, and do the same, center to near the edge, then again, all the way around. If the outside edge cracks and opens up like a v, then roll each side toward the crack so you have a little mound there, and roll out from the center over the mound. 
At worst, you can cut some excess and paste it on with a little water. 
Hope this helps


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## carlaird (Jan 16, 2007)

Yeah I think I will try that 
I 'll roll out at room temp then cool it in the fridge then fill or bake blind


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

My darling,

to expand upon siduri:

first, start with cold butter or shortening. 

1 part cold water
2 parts fat
3 parts flour (pastry or cake)

rub the cold fat into the flour until you have bits that look like the size of peas and cornflakes. 
add water, DO NOT KNEAD IN THE WATER, rather, dance it in with your hand. 
when the water is in, form a ball of dough, cover and chill about 30 min or more. you can even freeze for an extended period of time.

when you are ready to roll, have some all purpose flour dusted on your work space. 
take your dough ball and squeeze a little to soften.
put it on the rolling surface and gently press or hit with your rolling pin to start the dough going.

roll the dough all the time moving and lightly dusting with the all purpose flour to make sure it is not sticking.


NOW pre- baked,

dock the dough, with a fork, put it into your pan, put another pan over the dough, turn over and bake up-side down!
15 min until set and remove inside pan and bake to dry open.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Well, there's MY problem with my pie crusts breaking - I have two left hands!

_Dance it in with your hand_ - love that phrase!

mjb.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

The most common cause for cracking is dough that's too cold. However ...

The generic cause of your blind-baking problem is probably shrinkage -- in turn that's most probably caused by (a) stretching the dough too much when you put it in the pan; (b) using a glass pan AND not leaving enough overhang; (c) not letting the dough rest long enough between mixing and rolling; and (d) some combination.

Another possibility which would relate to both problems is the combination of not cutting the fat into the flour well enough combined with not enough rest.

So, cut the fat in well; give your dough a few minutes out of the fridge before you start rolling. Roll it larger than you'll need it (with the idea of trimming later); lay it in the pan carefully without stretching; and, if you use a glass pie pan for blind baking, leave a little overhang. Oh yes, don't blind bake at a temp higher than 350F. 325F is better.

In any case, don't let bottom-crust cracking faze you. Think of it as the step which comes before repairing. Scraps and a wet finger are all you need.

Agree with everything siduri and shroom said.

What kind of shortening do you use? _*NEW CRISCO NOW with ZERO TRANS-FAT *_has not proved to work nearly as well for a lot of things _*OLD CRISCO with EXTRA LOW DENSITY LIPIDS*_ used to do just fine. I don't have enough experience with it to lay the onus on it for your problems. But, personally, I make nearly all my pie crusts with lard (unless it's an all-butter crust is called for); and lard and butter make a good crust as well.

BDL


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