Subj : Pie Crust To : Ben Collver From : Ruth Haffly Date : Sun Dec 14 2025 05:15 pm Hi Ben, BC> Re: Pie Crust BC> By: Ruth Haffly to Ben Collver on Sat Dec 13 2025 09:58 am RH> Never heard of baking powder in a pie crust. Some decades ago (mid 80s) we RH> had supper at the house of another Army family, dessert was pie, made by RH> the husband. After we'd eaten he asked how we liked the pie, specifically RH> the crust. We told him that it was very good; he then confessed that he'd RH> made the crust with self rising flour (by accident). We assured him that RH> it did not affect the crust at all. BC> All's well that ends well. :-) Yes, we still stay in contact with that family. A bit over a year after we met, they moved to Germany, thought they would be closer to Rhein/Man. They knew we had orders for Frankfurt the next year---got a Christmas card from them, "guess where we are". Yes, they ended up in the same unit we were going to in Frankfurt. He was Steve's sponser over there, 7 years later after we'd moved to Berlin, Massachusetts and Arizona, Steve sponsered him when they moved to AZ. We'd stayed in touch in the years between. She commented at our older daughter's wedding that they had known us not quite as long as the relatives that attended, but longer than the friends we met along the way. BC> I found this pie crust recipe in the the Fido's Kitchen cookbook, so BC> apparently it had been posted here years ago. BC> That's on my bookshelf. BC> I have never put baking powder in pie crust, though i have seen pie BC> crust recipes that call for vinegar! I went through a phase of using The recipe my MIL gave me 50 years ago calls for it--to sour the milk. BC> an olive oil pie crust recipe. While it didn't turn not nearly as BC> good compared to a traditional shortening pie crust, it was much BC> easier to make. Just measure and mix, the same every time. Quick and easy. Talk about shortenings--my mom could never make a decent pie crust without lard. Her use of other shortenings yielded a cardboard like crust. I have used lard, butter, commercial (first Crisco, then Spectrum, an all natural one) for the shortening; my first choice is lard when I can get it, second choice is Spectrum. RH> That's way too much water! Try 2-3 tablespoons full at first, add more if RH> neccessary but you shouldn't need to with that amount of flour. BC> I've experienced huge variation in the absorbency of different wheat BC> flours. My family pie crust recipe calls for 2-2/3 cups of flour and 6 BC> to 7 tb of water, which would scale down to the ratio that you BC> recommend. The only thing is, 100% of the time i end up putting in BC> way more than 7 tb. It's usually more like 9 to 10 tb. We have a mill and grind wheat, both soft wheat for pastries and quick breads/biscuits/muffins/etc and hard wheat for breads, pizza crust & anything else made with yeast. I'll be making a pie crust this week for a pot pie, using up some of the Thanksgiving turkey but getting the crust recipe probably from my James Beard (everything) cookbook. BC> With a broken oven, i no longer bake pies. That's probably better for BC> my health anyway. :> When i am in a pumpkin pie mood i'll make a BC> pudding or smoothie or something like that. BC> If you wanted to make a dessert without the benefit of an oven, what BC> would you make? Baked apples in the microwave--use something like a Honeycrisp apple, core, fill middle with a mix of brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins. Nuke for 4-5 minutes, until soft, let cool a bit before eating as the sugar gets very hot. You can do more than one at once but adjust the cooking time, don't do more than about 4 apples at a time. If your microwave doesn't have a turntable, rotate the apples 2-3 times while baking. BC> Here's another recipe from the Fido's Kitchen cookbook: BC> Title: April Fool's Pizza Pie BC> Categories: Desserts BC> Yield: 8 Servings That is a good one; would make a good dessert after having a "normal" pizza. --- Catch you later, Ruth rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28 .... Multitask: make twice the mistakes in 1/2 the time. --- PPoint 3.01 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28) .