Pie Crust

I’m going to be posting the recipes I used for my pie competition over the next couple of days. The first thing needed when baking pies is a crust. I’ve actually never made full sized pie crusts before. I went with a William Sonoma recipe that is similar to most pie crust recipes out there. I used butter flavored Crisco and the crusts turned out flaky and delicious. I made 4 crusts even though I only needed 3 just in case I needed that extra one.

See WS link for ingredient list for 1 pie crust and for food processor method. I made sure everything was VERY cold before making my crusts. I measured the ingredients into bowl and put them in the freezer for 45 minutes. I also put my mixing bowl and pastry cutter into the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Pie crust – from William Sonoma
For a 9-inch double-crust pie:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
6 to 7 Tbs. cold water

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and toss together. Add the shortening. With your fingertips, 2 knives or a pastry blender, blend the ingredients together, working quickly, until you have a mixture of tiny, irregular flakes and bits about the size of coarse bread crumbs. Sprinkle on the water, 1 Tbs. at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition. Add just enough water for the dough to form a rough mass.

With floured hands, pat the dough into a smooth disk (or into 2 disks, one just slightly larger than the other, if you are making a double-crust pie). The dough is now ready to use. It is not necessary to refrigerate the dough before rolling out (unless you included some butter), although for convenience it may be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

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9 Responses to “Homemade Gingerbread Caramels”

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    1
    Megan — December 22, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    How did the parchment lining work out? Did the caramel stick very much? I’m thinking of making another batch of caramels tonight.

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    blog is the new black — December 22, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    What a unique idea- love it!

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    3
    Fun and Fearless in Beantown — December 22, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    Between you and Megan, I’m craving caramels!

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    4
    Victoria (The District Chocoholic) — December 22, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    Eek. I love gingerbread-flavored things, and love making caramel. This is genius.

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    Shannon — December 23, 2010 at 12:11 am

    aah, you’re doing everything that’s still on my list! marshmallows, caramels… i’ll get to it. someday! these sound amazing 🙂

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    Mira — December 23, 2010 at 2:10 am

    Yum! I wonder if I could use this recipe in my microwave caramel recipe?

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    kitchenmisfit — December 23, 2010 at 2:19 am

    One day I will have enough patience to try caramels. One day!
    -Amanda

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    vanillasugar — December 28, 2010 at 2:32 am

    oh goodness girl i just made some molasses-peanut chews and they were fabulous.
    but now seeing gingerbread caramel? wow. love this. great idea!

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    Jen — January 2, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    Mira, I’ve never made microwave caramel, but I’m sure you could add the spices and some molasses to make your recipe taste like gingerbread.

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