This sounds like an odd subject heading but I would like some
assistance here.

I have been making standard meat pies for ages. That is to say, my
meat pie is a pastry crust (shorcrustt pastry - see below) lined into
a pie dish and my pie dish is oblong and about 8-9 inches long x 5
inches or so wide with a 1 inch lip. Into this pastry lining I place
cooked meat in thick gravy - with or without kidney - and then a
pastry lid sealed with warm water and an egg wash and knife-cut vents
or a hole in the middle.

This I place on a previously heated oven sheet in a very hot oven (200
deg C) for about 35 minutes, and turn down to about 135 deg C for a
further hour.

This pie turns out just fine. But I have a problem with the
following pies:

Same short-crust recipe. Line a loose-bottom flan tin - without
stretching the pastry. Now - some recipes call for freezing or
chilling this pastry case for 20 minutes or so and then filling it
with an uncooked filling and cook for the requisite time in a fairly
hot oven on a previously heated oven sheet at 170-180 deg C for about
40 minutes. I do not find this works. The bottom of the pastry is
frequently not cooked through properly.

Other recipes call for blind cooking the pastry case, cooling it, and
then filling it with uncooked filling and then baking on a heated oven
sheet . I have tried this and wound up with very browned pastry.
However, some people like it like this.

Jamie Oliver recommends blind cooking any shortcrust pastry cases to
be filled with uncooked filling for about 15 minutes at 150 deg C and
then leaving to cool. He recommends a light wash of whisked egg
white over the base of the pastry and returned to the oven for 30
seconds only! He does this for quiche and savoury pies so that the
base seals and does not leak the contents. He recommends a bit
hotter blind baking for the same length of time for cooked fillings
which don't need the egg-white wash sealer.

I need advice here. And I need it from experienced pie-makers. I
think my oven temperature is actually a bit higher than the display
tells me - and I often turn it down by 10 deg C. I use the fan-bake
option. Shoudl I experiment with the conventional bake only perhaps?

(My shortcrust recipe is : 8 oz all-purpose flour, pinch salt, 4 oz
shortening (usually 3 oz butter, 1 oz lard), sufficient iced water to
form a firm pastry ball which I then wrap in cling-wrap and
refrigerate for up to 1 hour, but no less than 45 minutes.)

Love to hear from good pie-makers

Cheers


The Golfer's Wife

The Golfer's Wife wrote in news:kdssd39rcnbgr3ip6ibhh4rf79mjf7j96o@
4ax.com:

> My shortcrust recipe is

General rules As I couldn't spot a real problem...most of these if not
all you probably know.

I think the trouble might be the type of pie plate you are using...What
colour and material is it? Dark pie plates, glass pie plates, double
walled plates all require differing cooking times and temps from the
standard pie plate. As they all handle heat differently

But if you feel that the dark crust is your only difficulty...blind bake
it less time and put the baking sheet on a different rack (just to catch
any mess).

Convection ovens cook faster than standard conventional ovens. There is a
rule about reducing temperature and cooking time if the recipe isn't
written for a convection oven. See
http://www.broilking.com/convection_cooking.html
for more specifics

Oven thermometers are a cheap way to determine oven temp if your oven is
out of kilter.

In case you feel your pastry is inadiquate.

Madam Benoit was a Canadian Cooking Institution all by herself... before
J Child's time. She was French Canadian and collecteted some of her
recipes from travelling and cooking with French Canadian Farm Wives all
over Canada...many regional variations. Sadly (for me), it is not
possible to get her Books in English anymore; Since she is dead and the
last Translated to English book was published in the early 70's. But her
French CookBooks are still widely printed and used.

I use the following recipe...but sometimes replace the lemon juice with
vinegar, depending on need. (I should try lime juice once. Say on a
coconut cream pie)


@@@@@ Now You're Cooking! Export Format

Madam Benoit's No Fail Pastry

pies

5 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 lb lard
in a one-cup measuring cup
1 whole egg
3 tablespoons lemon juice
and enough water to make
for one cup of liquid

In A LARGE BOWL blend : 5 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon soda,
Cut in one pound of lard or shortening of choice.
Mix to resemble coarse crumbs.

IN A ONE CUP MEASURING CUP: Add 1 whole egg 3 tablespoons lemon juice Mix
with a fork and add enough water to fill the one cup measuring cup.
Add the cup of liquid to the dry ingredients and mix until dough forms
into a ball.

(at this point form into balls using approximate amount for the size pie
plate and place into a plastic bag until ready to roll.)

NOTE:
Rolling the dough between two sheets of wax paper makes for a nice even
sheet of pastry.
This will make 3-4 double pies-- depending on what size pie pans you are
using.

Usually I put the flour salt and Baking powder in a processor with a
dough blade... pluse a few times...add the lard, cold and in smallish
cubes pluse some more till correct consistancy then at the egg mixture
and pulse till a dough ball leave the side.

** Exported from Now You're Cooking! v5.82 **



--

The house of the burning beet-Alan

It'll be a sunny day in August, when the Moon will shine that night-
Elbonian Folklore