Dough: SM, FP, or by Hand?

I use a stand mixer for bread but sometime use the food processor for small quantities of pizza dough.

Me too except i cut the butter into the flour for biscuits in the FP also.

This seems to be a bit of a trend with you. You seem to get an agenda in your head and frustrate when it’s disproven or confronted by greater expertise. Then, you go into “agree to disagree” mode. Many people here know more than me about this or that. That’s why I come on here. I can learn from those with greater experience. You seem quite the opposite.

I’m glad you’re pretty happy with your cheesecake. All that matters, right? BUT, if I had to choose one or the other, just by expertise shown on here, Shellybean all day. Hope you’ll agree to disagree. You gonna confront Nannybakes while you’re at it? Tell her wassup!

I do all doughs by hand, as I have neither an FP or SM.

Are there any other people on here who just can’t enjoy the flavor of any kind of pie dough? I’ve had many many variations (vodka, lard, etc) but they all taste pretty much like sand to me. Love no crust pies. People used to “ooo and ahhh” over my grandma’s amazing pie crust (leaf lard.) I just don’t get it. It’s my “cilantro.”

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I love pie crust, but I think of late I’ve come to accept that I don’t love it cold. When warm or room temp it’s flaky, crisp, and buttery, but once cold it’s heavier with the butter solidifying. It doesn’t matter how great it tastes freshly baked, it feels like it doesn’t add to the experience when cold in pies like coconut cream, pumpkin, etc. I find tart crust is just nicer to eat in those. Or crumb crusts. But yeah, flaky pie dough loses a lot of its luster once it goes into the fridge.

You’re on to something. I always feel I can tolerate pie dough when it is warm because (IMHO) warm filling tends to integrate better with the dough when it’s hot. Good point about the butter solidifying. I hate it more cold that warm.

When making meat pies that have potato in them, I feel the starch of the potato combined with the sandiness of the dough often masks the meatiness for me, and absorbs much needed moisture.

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For a crust that needs to be refrigerated, a sweet tart dough, usually made with confectionery sugar is a good choice. Since it is more similar to a cookie dough, when cold it is much different than a pâte brisée. It’s my choice for custard pies/tarts etc. I recently made a lemon tart which needed refrigeration and this type of cookie dough is a very good choice.

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Speak of the angel, and she shows up. I don’t know you’re right; but I sure have faith you are.

I wonder if I might do well to attempt the sweet dough for my next pie.

This was the crustless apple pie recipe I made a good 50 times this year (magic apple season in my yard.)

The topping does get hard, and I LOVE it. No sand on the bottom, though, which IMO, allows for more breakdown and caramelization.

A sweet tart dough is best for an open pie/tart but not for a double crusted pie. If you warm a slice of double crusted apple pie on low heat in a skillet or griddle, it will usually rejuvenate it…partially covered. I make something similar to the Swedish pie, except it’s called Norwegian Apple Pie :blush:. It uses less sugar and flour in addition to almonds. It’s from Beatrice Ojakangas “The Great Scandinavian Baking Book” , pg. 211.

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Yeah, I wouldn’t cover with the sweet tart type. I do love graham cracker crusts.

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this is a lemon-custardy type construction - using a 60% FP-pulverized sliced almonds.
crust blind baked in a spring form, filled, baked to set lemon-custard.
suprisingly airy - it seems to just ‘evaporate’ . . .

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Interesting, thanks.

  • KitchenAid does not recommend kneading bread dough for more than 2 minutes at Speed 2, and that the total mixing and kneading time does not exceed 4-6 minutes.


There are several doughs that I routinely break this rule with (both speed and time). I think I’m making something (bead, bagels, or pizza) at least once a week. I’ve been doing it for, not sure, maybe 20 years. I guess I just got lucky with my KA SM as I’ve had no problems to date.

Of course, now that I’ve written this, tomorrow it’ll puke out on me while making the bagels… Doyt!

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I keep getting mixed reviews on KA stuff. I was thinking of getting such a nice device. Had one from the early days that died a slow death. Like losing an old dog, could never replace it. I dunno. I need to knead bread; but I need less bread. Been fermenting pizza dough, though. Hand kneaded. Wow! The bubbleage! Simple, but takes time.

Hey Tom, that looks great and my daughter makes pecan crusts a fair bit, but I don’t think we’ve made almond. Could you give details on the other 40% of the crust ingredients? (assuming flour, sugar, some kind of fat, but amounts?)

Thanks!

I like it and use it a lot. I used to always hand-knead but screwed up my shoulders so the KASM is a big help there. Also for making candies like marshmallow and fudge - same problem with the shoulders and trying to do it by hand anymore; I just can’t hack it.

I also like it for making meat pastes like for brats and gyro meat that are supposed to be heavily mixed. But I’ll add that the FP does that job just as well as the KASM; maybe better as long as I’m under about 3 pounds. It’s just that I much prefer cleaning the stainless KA bowl/implements to cleaning the plastic FP parts when it comes to really fatty stuff - for me it’s a lot easier to clean the fatty residues off the metal stuff.

It’s also really handy for cake batters, but really that’s just because you can walk over and do something else for a couple of minutes while it runs. What I mean is, it doesn’t do it any better than using a hand-held mixer. It’s just that you don’t have to do it manually.

it’s a pretty easy one -

crust:
in a food processor
pulverize / near flour 1/3-1/2 cup (60g) sliced almonds
blend in
1 cup (130g) AP flour
1/4 cup (50g) sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp almond extract

pulse in 6 tbsp (85g) cold unsalted butter

3-5 tbsp (45-75ml) iced water to make it come together.

roll into a ball - chill for 2-3 hours

pre-heat oven to 425’F for blind bake

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Cool; thanks much!

My go-to pie crust is half butter and half lard cut into AP flour in my food processor with a bit of ice water added to bring together. The ratios are 3.5 parts flour to 1.5 parts fat to 1 part water, by weight. A pinch of salt is optional. Be sure to get lard that is not hydrogenated; leaf lard is considered best but I have used to good effect lard homemade from trimmings.