Skillet Cherry Pie

Skillet Cherry Pie 

Every now and then I make this, and it is Poppie's favorite.  

This time I used the new-to-me pie crust recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt here. 

Two cans Comstock cherry pie filling, with about 1/2 tsp almond extract mixed in. 

Brush the crust with milk or an egg white, and sprinkle with sugar.   Bake at 400 degrees about 40 minutes or until pie crust looks done. 

This Wagner cast iron skillet was Grandma Mary Lou's (and probably Two's before her). 

Kenji Lopez-Alt's Pie Crust - mostly butter - so easy and good

 Pie Crust - mostly butter - so easy and good. 

Use your kitchen scale!! 

This is from Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats and the full article is here, very very detailed with pictures and explanations of "why" this and that.  

This is the third or fourth pie crust I've tried in my lifetime, and it is the easiest and best (!). 

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups (12.5 ounces; 350g) all-purpose flour, divided

• 2 tablespoons (25g) sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons (5g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use same weight or half as much by volume

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

• 4 T Crisco, cut into four pieces
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces; 85ml) cold water

Combine 2/3 of the flour with sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse twice to incorporate. Spread butter slices evenly over surface. Pulse until no dry flour remains and dough just begins to collect in clumps (25+ pulses, maybe a lot more). Use a rubber spatula to spread the dough evenly around the bowl of the food processor. Sprinkle with remaining flour and pulse (5+ pulses) until dough is just barely broken up. 

Transfer dough to a large mixing bowl.

Sprinkle with the cold water. Use a rubber spatula to fold and press dough until it comes together into a ball. Divide ball in half. Form each half into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and baking.  (the first time I made this, I didn't have time to refrigerate and it worked great anyway). 

Pie crust

Pie Crust
Makes 2 large crusts.  It is also possible to divide this recipe into 3 parts for smaller/very thin crusts. 

There are so many pie crust recipes - and so many opinions.  Someday I will try to perfect an all-butter crust, but for now, this is by far the best and easiest pie crust recipe.  It is very similar to the one from Karen Sasine's Mom that I used for years, but the proportions are different and I like that it makes enough pastry for two good big crusts.  For example, it's enough to make a skillet pie and actually have a good bit of dough to fold over. 

3 C flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 C Crisco
1 egg, beaten
5 T ice cold water
1 T vinegar

In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt.  Cut in the Crisco with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles course crumbs.  Add the egg, water, vinegar, and stir gently with a fork until just combined.  Briefly use your hands to combine and form into a ball.  Separate ball in half.  Put each half between two sheets of waxed paper, or into a quart sized ziploc, and pat down into a thick disk shape.  Freeze for about 15 minutes to chill.  (You can also freeze the dough in this state for weeks - which is very helpful to do, because making pie crust is a huge pain!).   

Allow crust to thaw about 15 minutes, and then roll out in the usual way, with plenty of flour.  Using that plastic pie dough case thing is a great idea!