On Tue, 6 Nov 2018 05:00:56 -0000 (UTC), Wayne Boatwright
> wrote:

>On Mon 05 Nov 2018 04:57:38p, Boron Elgar told us...
>
snip

>> Can you get cake flour? Try a mix of KA + cake flour and see if
>> that improves tenderness for you.
>
>Actually I did try that several times in different ratios, based on
>"recipes" for such on different websites. The results were only
>marginally better.
>
>I'll try Gold Medal AP again as a last ditch effort before I give in
>and mail order some pastry flour.
>
>What really "bugs" me about this is that I've been baking pies for
>over 50 years - all kinds of pies, fruit, custard, cream, etc.
>Double-crust and blind-baked shells. My success rate is beeter than
>90% for tender flaky crusts. The last perfect pie I baked was nearly
>3 years ago. it's discouaging.
>
>When I find a solution I'll post the results.
>
>Thanks for your comments, Boron. Much appareciated!

Happy to offer any assistance I can.

Can you get Hecker's/Ceresota flour out there? It is AP, but I have
found that it works better for me on crusts.

I do have to admit that I do few of my own crusts these days (I still
do specialty ones - almond flour, crumb, other nut, etc), but for
plain ones have succumbed to convenience and buy Oronoque Orchards
frozen crusts. I wait until they are on sale and stash a few in the
freezer.

I do find, though, that the basic grocery stores by me offer fewer and
fewer varieties of flour, especially the interesting ones. The Bob's
Red Mill gets put in with the organics, away from the regular baking
aisle and are generally sold in small bags. Hodgeson Mills is also a
decent flour, but again, getting scarce.

Same thing with other product types - I went looking for champagne
vinegar the other day and nada. I could have gotten 12 kinds of
balsamic, though. Or 32 kinds of apple cider vinegar.