Food Science: The Anatomy of a Pie Crust (2024)

FAQs

Food Science: The Anatomy of a Pie Crust? ›

Liquid: The liquid in a pie crust creates the steam that lifts the pastry and creates flakes. It also gets absorbed into the flour, helping to create gluten. Too little liquid and the dough won't hold together, but add too much and you'll end up with a rock-hard crust!

Pies are defined by their crusts. A filled pie (also single-crust or bottom-crust), has pastry lining the baking dish, and the filling is placed on top of the pastry but left open. A top-crust pie has the filling in the bottom of the dish and is covered with a pastry or other covering before baking.

Pie crust has one of the shortest ingredient lists: Flour + a little Salt and Sugar + Fat + Water. When flour and water come together the result is a complex network of gluten proteins.

Gluten is what makes bread soft and stretchy – it's desirable in bread, but not in pie dough. Rather, pie dough should be flaky and tender! So, it's important to use cold butter and ice water with your flour, as the coldness interrupts gluten development. Try to not handle the dough too much when mixing.

“Once it's in the oven, that butter goes from solid to liquid, and the water that separates out turns to gas, which forms air pockets to create flake,” UCLA food scientist and pie expert extraordinary Amy Rowat told Popular Science in 2015.

PIE Structure

A PIE paragraph opens with a main point that your paragraph will discuss, then gives information to support that point, then ends with an explanation of the information.

What is pâte brisée called in English? There are several English names for the pastry dough called pâte brisée in French. In the U.K., it is called shortcrust pastry, a nod to its short or crumbly texture. In the U.S., it is generally called pie pastry or pie dough because it is most often used for pies.

During baking, chemical reactions occur that transform the raw ingredients into a delicious pie. The Maillard reaction, responsible for browning, adds depth of flavor to the crust. Meanwhile, the pectin in fruits thickens the filling as it cooks, creating a luscious texture.

#2—Add cold water

Before you start making the dough, fill a glass with ice and water. Add the ice water gradually to the dough, about one tablespoon or so at a time, and stop when the dough is just moist enough to hold together when a handful is squeezed.

PIE DOUGH RULES

As important as not overmixing is staying chilled, literally!! That means keeping all elements cold— your counter, ingredients, hands, heart (just kidding!). No, but seriously, cut up your butter into little cubes and chill them before you incorporate them into the flour.

Why cut slits in pie crust? ›

With docking, the holes allow steam to escape, so the crust should stay flat against the baking dish when it isn't held down by pie weights or a filling. Otherwise the crust can puff up, not only impacting appearance but also leaving you with less space for whatever filling you have planned.

One of the major differences between the two is the consistency of the crust. While pie crusts are very flaky and light, tart crusts or pastry crusts, tend to be firm and crumbly and not at all flaky.

The pie dough is too dry!

There are two very important things to point out in those few words– “cold” water and “just until flour is moistened.” It's critical to use cold water to keep the butter cold. The butter should stay firm so it doesn't soften and combine with the flour.

PIES are the four areas of a child's development- physical, intellectual, emotional, and social. Each of these areas is important to a child's overall development and a parent should engage their children in the PIES every day.

A pie chart is a type of graph representing data in a circular form, with each slice of the circle representing a fraction or proportionate part of the whole. All slices of the pie add up to make the whole equaling 100 percent and 360 degrees.

The pie chart is divided into sectors for representing the data of a particular part out of the whole part according to the measurements. Pie charts also called pie diagrams, represent each sector or slice as the proportionate part of the whole.