Best Pie Crust Ever by David Letterman's Mom: No Joke!

With Easter and Passover cooking a fond memory, nothing sounds more delicious than a simple, fruit-filled pie! With a fresh crop of strawberries ready to pop up, or if you have a few pounds of last summer's frozen blueberries nearing retirement, just grab 4 cups of your favorite fruit and you are ready to roll!

Now, we can tackle the most delicious and fool-proof pie crust recipe ever thanks to David Letterman's mother, Dorothy Mengering. In her book, Home Cookin' with Dave's Mom, published in 1996, the pride and joy of Carmel, Indiana, and frequent guest on her son's talk show, Dorothy's cookbook is one of my favorites. The recipes are simple, authentic, and the photos and stories capture charming memories in Indiana with her family and famous son.

Dorothy credits many friends and family for the recipes she shares. Her pie crust recipe appealed to me as it included egg yolk and lemon juice components of my grandmother's excellent pie crust recipe from childhood on her aunt's farm in Lowell, Indiana. I knew Dorothy was on to something! As you will see below, you do not have to chill the dough before rolling, and you do not need a food processor or any tools beyond a fork and a rolling pin!

Vegetable shortening is the centerpiece of this recipe, and even Julia Child's pie crust calls for 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening, but Dorothy's recipe takes the cake, so to speak. The fat content just makes pie crust crispy - it's a must. Pie crust is so versatile besides fruit pies, you can make quiche by partially pre-baking a pie shell before adding eggs, cheese, and vegetables.

This truly is one recipe to keep handy, and it is definitely a Letterman's Top Ten!

Flaky Pie Crust (Home Cookin' with Dave's Mom page 150, adapted)

Makes top and bottom for 1 pie

Ingredients:

3/4 cup shortening (I use Crisco at room temp see photo)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup cold milk

Method:

Combine first four ingredients in a bowl chopping in shortening with a fork as shown in photo. Separately, combine egg yolk, lemon juice and milk. Pour liquids into flour mixture to form a ball. Divide ball in 2 (using the bench scraper you bought for $1 at Dollar Tree see this post  Must Have $1 Kitchen Tool ). Roll one of the dough balls to place inside the pie plate you will be baking in. It just fine if you need to patch it in no one sees the bottom! Add fruit filling, suggestions below. Roll out the next ball of dough to cover top. Slit top for air to escape.

Bake on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.
Reduce heat to 350, and bake 35 minutes. If crust becomes too dark, add a collar of foil to the edge when you reduce heat to 350.

Filling suggestions:

4 cups of fruit, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour. For blueberries add 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Strawberries 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice. For apples, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg. Play around with other fruits fresh or frozen. Frozen bring to room temp before combining these ingredients.

YUM!

Fruits of your labor!

Step 1 mix dry ingredients with Crisco

Step 2 add liquid with fork form a ball.

Divide dough in half using your $1 scraper!

Rollout one portion of dough on floured surface with floured rolling pin.

OK if you need to patch the crust into pie plate! No shame it is delicious.

Crisco vegetable shortening comes in easy to cut sticks like butter.

Blog Milestone: Guess the Most Popular Post?

Thanks to all of you, my blog has been viewed 1,000 times!

I thought it would be a perfect moment to let you know a little bit about the community of readers that have found this cyber spot. Viewers are from 10 countries around the world with the USA being the largest contingent. More than half of the viewers use an iPhone which is why I chose to use a dark background with white text. This color scheme helps reading in sun light, and it also limits blue light.

The most popular post was the Baileys Irish Cream story about the production in Ireland, places to stay in Cavan County, and the two easy recipes using the product. It had twice the number of views as any other post. Since that original posting, I added more photos.

I also renamed one of the recipes. . .  Bailey-os . . . take another peek! It is delicious, easy, and an attractive presentation using Baileys, Cool Whip, and Oreos. It is MY completely original recipe. As you will see in the photos, the mixture of Baileys and Cool Whip by itself can be used as a topping to fruit, ice cream, pound cake, or as a light version of Irish Coffee by adding dollop to a cup of coffee.

You may be looking for a great adult Easter Dessert. It needs to sit overnight for the cookies to meld into a soft cake-like texture. Truly magic and delicious! Click the link below to go directly to that post.

Finally, thank you very much for taking the time to follow my Meandering blog and for the positive, clever comments you have shared with me along the way! Please continue voting with your fingers by sharing this blog with your friends and family. Let's cook!

Baileys blended into Cool Whip - add a dollop to coffee for Light Irish Coffee!

Click here to go to:

Baileys Irish Cream Blog Post

Must Have $1 Kitchen Tool: Thanks to Julia Child

Julia Child gets much credit for bringing cooks into the kitchen in a period of time when frozen convenience cooking was popular in the 1960s. I believe her greatest introduction was the use of handy tools to make cooking less intimidating. She was known to be quite the gadget collector, a habit I, too, have picked up over the years.

During one of her early The French Chef series Julia shows the audience how to use a French pastry scraper OR she suggests picking up a putty scraper at the local hardware store for about $1! She shows the audience the two scrapers, and they are similar. In the 1960s, I am certain few kitchens stocked a traditional French scraper. I received my scraper shown here as a gift 45 years ago, and it has held up. Today, the tool can also be called a bench scraper, bench knife, or dough scraper.

This is such a handy device that can be used for pastry, bread dough, or cutting brownies, Rice Krispies treats, and bar cookies. The best part is you do not have to spend $25 + on this JC recommended tool. You can find an all steel version, which you can run through a dishwasher, for only $1 at the Dollar Tree store! If you are not near this store (a little gem of hidden gourmet finds) you can order a case of 24 on line delivered to your home at the link below. After keeping a couple for yourself, you can make 20+ friends and family members very happy by gifting them this must have tool, along with the Julia Child story. Easter basket stuffer?

While you are shopping at Dollar Tree, not just for their amazing selection of balloons, check out this imported Basil Pesto made in Italy that is delicious on pasta or gnocchi. It is great served on top of breaded chicken cutlets or as a condiment on grilled panini sandwiches. It's only $1.

Another great find is this Himalayan Pink Salt, at 7.5 ounces it is packed in South Africa and can't be beat for $1. Both of these items I have given as unique and useful hostess gifts.

Bottom line, if Julia Child could send cooks to the hardware store for a pastry scraper, let's not be uncomfortable heading to our local dollar store for some great kitchen devices and random, unexpected surprises along the way!

Bon Appétit!

My 45+ year old pastry scraper (bread made this morning - a future blog!)

Great use of tool and note this price available from King Arthur Flour website.

A steel scraper - a STEAL at $1 at Dollar Tree!

Guess what the bunny is gifting?

From Dollar Tree store Basil Pesto & Himalayan Pink Salt each $1.

Shop for scraper on line at Dollar Tree:

Dollar Tree Scraper

Easy Fresh Pasta: No Tech Tagliatelle Two Ingredients (+ bits of salt and water)

Cooking technology has grown dramatically since Julia Child entered our homes on The French Chef in 1963.

Like many, I purchased the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, which is great for making large quantities of pasta. This recipe requires NO technology only a rolling pin. If you don't have a rolling pin - I've seen people use an empty clean wine bottle as a rolling pin. Sometimes reverting to "old-school" methods just makes sense and requires less clean-up.

In cooking classes in Verona and Venice, both cities used similar measurements for delicious pasta. The pasta can be shaped into any style you like once combined including lasagna sheets and ravioli. Tagliatelle noodles are long and about 1/4 inch wide, pictured here that I made in both locations. This recipe serves two people, and it can be doubled or tripled for up to six servings.

(Larger portions would be easier using a pasta machine or mixer attachment. If using a pasta machine or the Kitchen Aid attachment (photo below), instead of rolling the two pasta balls, put through the machine six times to arrive at the proper thin thickness before cutting noodles or using mixer attachment. The rest of these instructions are the same from that point.)

Fresh pasta cooks much faster in boiling water than purchased pasta. Also, fresh pasta has much less salt, so it is necessary to heavily salt the boiling water before placing the noodles in. The water should "taste" like sea water. There is no comparison in taste between handmade, fresh pasta and boxed - you owe it to yourself to make this once to be convinced!

Read all directions first.

Pasta alla Venice and Verona
(serves 2, time required about 90 minutes with resting and cooking, can be made same day or day before)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
pinch salt
1 tablespoon room temp water (at a time)

Method:

On wood or stone surface, place all the flour make a hole in the middle of pile.

Place egg in middle of flour hole, add pinch of salt and the tablespoon of water.

With a fork, begin by beating the egg mixture and slowly draw in the flour to form a ball. Add small amounts of water if too dry.

A ball should form quickly.

Kneed the ball for 10 minutes. Try not to add too much flour to surface the dough should be sticking together like Play Dough texture. Kneeding is important as it releases the gluten from the flour to prevent noodles from rising during cooking. Be rough! You can throw it down on the surface. It needs a complete 10 minutes to make the perfect noodle.

Place ball in plastic wrap leave at room temp and let it rest for 30 minutes (you, too)

Divide the ball into 2 portions.

Rollout each into a rectangle shape very thin. Italians say you should be able to read the newspaper through your dough then it is thin enough for shaping noodles. Leave uncovered on work surface.

Rest for 10 minutes.

Shaping for Tagliatelle:

Fold the rectangle starting with the short end until it forms a strip see photo below.

Cut into 1/4 inch strips as shown in photo. Puff them up gently in air and let them dry out on a piece of floured parchment paper. In Venice the noodles were left overnight, and in Verona they were boiled  after resting 30 minutes. Both methods worked just fine. If leaving overnight, place tray of pasta uncovered in the refrigerator to continue drying. This is the difference between using eggs in Europe and eggs in the USA. I'll skip the science.

Cooking:

Boil large pot of water. Before adding noodles put 2 tablespoons of salt to the water. Cook until done about 3 minutes sample for doneness first. Drain add a few pats of butter as show. Top with Meatless or Meaty Ragú recipes posted earlier. Here are the links:

Meaty Ragu Recipe

Meatless Ragu Recipe

Finished pasta for 6!

Tagliatelle close up of below line cut.

Tagliatelle cut from line folded pasta.

Tagliatelle dry out before cooking 30 minutes or overnight; 6 servings shown here.

Device for Kitchen Aid no rolling required!