Hey, cutie pie! An expert dishes on great crusts

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - Lots of people love pie _ to eat, that is. Not so many love to make it.

Pie is made up of multiple components _ crust, filling, topping _ and getting them all to work is hard enough. Getting them to look beautiful can be an even bigger challenge.

That's why we've put together a package of tips and techniques to make your pies, well, pretty as pie. And it's easier than you think.

MAKE YOUR PIECRUST PRETTY:

WOVEN LATTICE CRUST

Roll out dough into a circle or rectangle. Cut into similar-width strips using a pizza cutter (for plain edges) or a pastry wheel (for ruffled edges). Place vertical parallel strips of dough over pie, leaving some space between strips and letting them hang over at the sides of the pan. Then fold back alternating strips of the dough (first, third and fifth, for example). Now, starting at the bottom of the pie, closest to you, cross the remaining nonfolded strips with a horizontal strip of dough at right angles, then return folded-back strips to their original position. Now fold back the other alternating strips (second, fourth and sixth) and cross the nonfolded strips horizontally with another strip of dough; return folded-back strips to original position. Continue until pie is covered with woven lattice, then trim the ends of the strips to line up with the bottom of the pie pan and fold under.

CHEATER LATTICE CRUST

This requires a lattice cutter, which comes in two forms, one that looks like a many-bladed pizza cutter and a round one that stamps out the lattice shape (these can be bought in other patterns, too, such as leaves or hearts). I use the many-bladed one: Roll out dough into a circle and roll lattice cutter across dough. Pick up dough carefully and stretch gently into lattice. Place over filled but unbaked pie. (Lattice cutters are available in some kitchenware departments and at specialty kitchen and baking equipment stores; Target carries a plastic cutter called the Bethany Lattice Pastry Roller for $9.99.)

FLUTED CRUST

Make sure your edges are about Ľ inch thick by folding excess dough underneath the edges of the crust but on top of the rim of the pie tin. With thumb and index finger of one hand, press dough around the index finger of the other hand to form a flute.

CUTOUTS

Roll out dough to 1/8- to Ľ-inch thickness _ no thicker. Stamp out decorative shapes with piecrust cutters or small cookie cutters, or cut out free-form shapes with a sharp paring knife (leaves are a popular choice). Attach cutouts in an attractive pattern to top surface of piecrust, or to the edges, by brushing the back of the decoration with water, milk or egg wash (beat a whole egg with a few grains of kosher salt or coarse sea salt and Ľ teaspoon or so of water) and then carefully applying the cutout, egg-wash-side down, to the pie.

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BRAIDED EDGE

Roll a piece of dough into a long rectangle. Cut three long strips with a pizza cutter or paring knife. Roll each strip into a long snake. Braid the three snakes and attach around the top edge of the pie, "gluing" the braid down with water, milk or egg wash.

PRETTY PIE PAN

Perhaps the easiest way to make a pretty crust is to use a pretty pie pan. Emile Henry makes stoneware pie pans with ruffled edges ($44 at Williams-Sonoma). Simply lay a bottom crust into the pan, making sure that the crust is large enough to fit in the pan, fitting it up the sides and across the top edges without stretching the dough. Add a few cutouts of leaves or apples for the ultimate designer crust.

RUSTIC TART

All thumbs? Skip the pie pan altogether and make a rustic French tart called a galette. Peel and cut up about five to six pie apples (Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Gala or a combination) and toss with about 3 to 4 tablespoons of sugar and the zest of about half of a lemon. (You can even do this part a day ahead.) Roll out pie dough into a circle, anywhere from 12 to 14 inches round. I do this on a piece of parchment paper on the back of a rimmed baking sheet. Leave the dough edges split and raggedy-looking. Spread about Ľ cup apricot preserves onto the center of the dough, leaving a margin of about 3 to 4 inches around the edges. Arrange the apples in overlapping concentric circles to cover the apricot preserves. Fold the dough's perimeter up over the filling, leaving the center of the tart open. Brush the top crust with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar _ granulated, turbinado (sugar in the raw) or decorator crystal sugar (sparkling sugar). Chill galette for 30 minutes or as long as a day. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake chilled galette for 20-35 minutes, or until apples are tender and crust is dark golden brown.

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TIPS FOR MAKING A GREAT CRUST

A from-scratch crust is the most intimidating part of pie-making for most cooks, but these secrets will help cure your fear of pie-ing.

Work with cold ingredients. Cold fat (butter, shortening or lard) and ice water will help ensure success. The colder the ingredients, the less chance you have of overworking the dough and creating a tough, hard crust.

The bigger the pieces of fat in your dough, the flakier the crust will be. Your choice of fat will affect the flakiness and flavor of the crust. Butter has the best flavor; shortening or lard will create a flakier crust because they are 100 percent fat, while the best butter (like European-style Plugra) is only 82 percent fat.

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Mix the dough and then gently form it into a disc, or discs, if making more than one crust. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour or for as long as two days. For longer storage, place plastic-wrapped discs into a freezer bag and store in the freezer for as long as a month.

Roll out dough to the thickness specified in your recipe, working from the center of the dough out. Roll from the center to the top, then from the center to the right, then from the center to the bottom and finally from the center to the left. Think of the dough disc as a clock face and roll from the center to noon, then 3, 6 and 9 o'clock.

It is easier to roll a circle out of dough with a tapered, or "French," rolling pin. These are wooden pins without handles that taper to a point at both ends. Straight rolling pins, like those with handles, are better for rolling out squares and rectangles.

Use as little extra flour as possible when rolling out dough. For some, it helps to roll dough between pieces of plastic wrap, parchment paper or wax paper. Or use a silicone dough-rolling mat.

Carefully transfer dough to the pie pan. You can roll it up around the rolling pin and unroll over the pan, or loosely fold the dough in half, then in half again, and transfer the triangle to the pie pan, centering the point. Unfold gently over pan and ease the dough into the bottom of the pan. Do not stretch or pull the dough to make it fit or to fix a tear. You can always use a scrap of dough to cover a tear or make a patch. Remember, no one is going to see the inside bottom crust of your pie.

Refrigerate the pie pan with the dough for 30 minutes or as long as a day. Then fill pie and bake, or top with a second crust as your recipe indicates. If adding a top crust, refrigerate the pie again for at least 30 minutes before baking.

All the resting and chilling assures that your crust will be as tender and flaky as possible. Each time you handle the dough, you are working the gluten in the flour, and the more you work the gluten, the tougher the dough will be. By allowing the gluten to rest, you are preventing toughness and the chance that the dough will shrink as it bakes. By keeping the dough as cold as possible, you are ensuring that the crust will be flaky by keeping the fat from melting before it goes in the oven.

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BASIC PIECRUST

"If you use lard, make sure to buy it from a store with good turnover, for the freshest product. Store it in the refrigerator; it will need to be very cold for the recipe, and it will stay fresher longer. Fat turns rancid very quickly, so always smell it before using it. Your nose will know if it's gone bad"

Makes 1 double-crust 9-inch pie (recipe may be doubled or tripled)

2 ˝ cups (12.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons white granulated sugar

˝ cup (8 tablespoons) lard or vegetable shortening, chilled

12 tablespoons (1 ˝ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

6 to 8 tablespoons ice water, or more as needed to hold dough together.

1. Whisk the flour, salt and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add the lard or shortening and the butter and toss the fat in the flour mixture with your hands. Break up any very large pieces of fat, coating each in the flour mixture as you do so. The chunks should be no smaller than the size of a pecan in the shell.

2. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. With a rubber spatula or your hands, use a folding motion to mix just until the dough sticks together. If the dough will not come together, add more ice water, 2 tablespoons at a time. Do not overmix the dough, or your piecrust will be tough and dry.

3. Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 4-inch disc. Wrap separately in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour, or up to 2 days, before rolling.

_adapted from "Cook's Illustrated" magazine

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HELPFUL GADGETS

Pie-making gadgets abound in kitchen shops and catalogs. Nothing can replace good technique, and many gadgets are superfluous, but some of them can help make your pie experience easier and more fun. These are the tools I can't live without.

Rubber rolling pin rings. One brand is Regency Wraps' Evendough Bands. These look like big rubber bands and come in a set of four thicknesses, 3/8, Ľ, 1/8 and 1/16 inch. When placed at each end of your rolling pin, they allow you to roll the dough only to the thickness of the band. (They also work great for rolling cookie dough to an even thickness.) A set is $9.95 at www.kitchenkrafts.com.

A good rolling pin. I like the new silicone pins, but my old favorite is a wooden pin with no handles, because the rubber rings fit right over the ends.

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Silicone rolling mat. A mat will help you use less flour, which makes for a better piecrust, with less sticking. Many manufacturers now make these, including Pampered Chef, DeMarle and Calphalon.

Small cookie cutters. Many companies make leaf-shaped cookie cutters, and Williams-Sonoma makes piecrust cutters that have tiny plungers to make it easy to remove the dough from the cutter; they're four for $17.

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© 2008, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.