pie crust ramblings

For my brother's birthday I was going to make a cheesecake, as I usually do. But he seemed to be fighting a cold the week before, so I asked him if he wanted to be eating so much dairy, and he said a blueberry pie would be just fine. So, that's what I did.

My mother was a good cook, but she couldn't make a pie crust; we would eat supermarket pies when we were kids, and we didn't know any better, but then I learned how to make one in Home Ec. class. Afterward, the holiday pies would fall to me - everyone liked my pies and all was well for years. I think I used a recipe from a Farm Journal cookbook, and shortening was called for.

When "The Omega Plan" came out, I found out how unhealthy Crisco was, so I switched to using canola oil. (it took another several years for me to understand about organic, non-GMO canola oil) I've been making oil crusts for years now, but it's a softer dough. No rolling it out on a floured counter - I roll it between sheets of wax paper. It's thinner, too, and I've given up trying to crimp the edges prettily like I used to do back when. The taste is good and my fruit pies never get soggy on the bottom.

Back to my brother: I was too low on canola oil to make a crust, but at the supermarket I couldn't find any of the Spectrum brand I always get - it was nowhere. I thought of trying lard, but the package said it had three additives which sounded foreign and awful to me. Well. At home I had butter, and coconut oil. And, while they say that some things make better pie crusts than others, fat is still fat, and I knew I could make one with whatever I had around.

I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but with one stick of butter and one cup of coconut oil. I left out the sugar. It was like the old days, rolling it out on the counter with flour all over the place! It came out fine, except that the bottom crust got gooey from the berries. (I always put way less thickener than called for, deliberately, for plenty of juiciness.)

I've been pondering for a while if I should start making butter crusts. If I do, I am going to roll them out between wax paper, in order to get them thinner - I think I can avoid the gooey factor that way. Meanwhile, I bought some grapeseed oil at the store, as the bottle said it was suitable for higher heat, as in baking. I'll probably use it for the pumpkin pie I make tomorrow, as I'm more used to the oil crust and I have lots of cooking to do ahead of Thanksgiving. But I will go back to the other method again - it's good to have options.

I ended up making the cheesecake anyway. It's a great recipe, isn't too big, has not-too-much sugar, and can be made with goat cheese, so is pretty healthy.

It went fast. Unlike this post, which I'm sure was too involved for anyone but a dedicated pie baker!