Master Pastry Lesson - Gram LuVerne

I've re-written this blog post so many times and I still don't know I've got it right, it was just so fantastic to be in the kitchen with my Gram one more time.  It was, by far, the best day I had on my trip to Canada.  We spent the morning making pastry, a lesson I've been pushing for from her because Gram LuVerne is the Pastry Master.  It's been years since Gram made pastry but she still remembered a lot of tricks and I'm the new keeper of her secrets.  I almost don't know where to start with all the tips she gave me.

We made two types of pastry, an egg rich one and a plain one with just water.  And we used the pastry to make two pies, apple and rhubarb. 

Gram's Pastry Recipe

A
Mix together
5 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Cut in with a pastry cutter
2 cups shortening

B (rich version)
2 Tbsp White Vinegar
2 Eggs
2 Tbsp Ice Water (or more)

B (water version)
1/4 cup water - to start, then keep adding by the spoonful until the pastry comes together

Add B to A, and combine with a fork, add extra water if necessary.

This is enough to make two 10 inch 2 crust pies with some pastry leftover to make tart shells.

But just writing out Gram's recipe isn't really enough, it's all her tips on handling and working it that makes a master, because pastry is a bit of an estimated art, not the science of most baking.  So here come the tips:

On a recipe this size there's a 1 cup leeway on the amount of flour, the actual amount of flour is 5 to 6 cups.

Use very soft shortening.

At all times, keep the texture of the pastry soft, it's hard to explain this one, it's more to do with the brevity of movements that I noticed Gram using when working the dough rather than the softness or gentleness of her movements.  One hard sweep of the rolling pin to flatten the dough is better than three delicate rolls because there's less handling in one sweep, I hope that makes sense.  Gram didn't have any qualms about being rough with it when she got the speed going.

Cut the shortening into the flour until it is all mixed in but the flour is still mobile, it should only just clump together but if you run a rubber spatula through it it should still look a bit dry and any clumps should break up easily.

When rolling out, use lots of flour, she said it need to ride on a layer of flour.  If it sticks to the board, take a floured knife and un-stick it then scoop flour onto the knife and slide it under the pastry, work your way around the dough wherever needed.

If you get cracks when rolling, don't just press the edges back together, seal it up with a bit of water and dust over the repair with flour.

If the pastry is too dry, instead of making a ball to start rolling, tease it out into a flat circle first.

When making a pie, Gram likes to build up the edge of the crust really thick so it will catch the drips if the pie bubbles up and leaks, if the edge is too thin you run the risk of the juices seeping back under the bottom crust into the pan, and I have to say good luck getting your slice of pie out then.  See how thick she's built up the edge here.

If you plan on making a lot of pies over a short period of time, Gram used to make up a large pail of her pastry recipe to the completion of part A on the recipe, then keep the pail in the garage where it would stay cool.  She could then take a scoop out of the pail and add whichever variation of part B she wanted to mix up the pastry.  She said having it part mixed allowed the pastry to rest before mixing it up fully, so you don't have to rest it later and can use it right away.

Gram also showed me how to make tart shells on the outside of a muffin tin instead of the inside, there's less shrinkage that way.

After the pastry lesson, my sisters came in and we had a cup of tea and a visit, they joked that I had syphoned off all of Gram's pastry making knowledge. I have to say I learnt a lot from her instruction, one pastry was a complete dog and pony show of a disaster where she showed me all sorts of tips to save it and the other was probably the most successful pastry making experience of my life.  Gram served us some of her lemon curd tarts, she's been buying tart shells for a few years now because she doesn't need to have a full recipe of pastry taking up space in her freezer for the few bits that she makes and I think that's fair for anyone living on their own.  However her signature marshmallow meringue, well there are some short cuts you can only earn the rights to after decades of doing it the long way.

Since being back in London I've been watching the Great British Bake Off and have taken an interest in different types of pastry, some should crumble, some flake, and others need to rise in layers, but all pastry should always be crisp and dry and rich.  I have had a few goes at making some of them, I did another run at Gram Ross' sausage roll pastry, which I used to make an onion tart tatin and a small wellington.

I have worked out my issues with sweet short crust pastry (sometimes called pate sucree) which was the killer on last year's thanksgiving pumpkin pie, take a look at my awesome lemon strawberry tarts.  And while this really is bragging, check out how evenly beige the bottoms are.

(I really should remember to turn on the lights when taking photos, those tarts look really brown but I assure you they weren't.)

Today I even braved the challenge of puff pastry rolling and re-rolling six turns to layer the butter and pastry dough and made myself a spinach pie for dinner, check out those layers in the top crust!

All joking aside, I think I really have syphoned off Gram's pastry knowledge, and it's a good thing it went somewhere because she said these were the last pies she was ever going to make.

Gram only helped me with the pastry, I had to take the pies back to Mom's to bake them, but we sent in a slice of each with Dad the next day for her to inspect.  We had a debate over whether Gram would just take a taste and let Dad eat the lion's share of the slices but he came home a bit depressed that they hadn't been offered to him at all.  Gram is very health conscious with her diet, which is probably due part credit for her living into her 90s.  She told me the first thing she did was flip them over and check that they baked all the way through on the bottom, which they did, Gram's clearly a tougher critic than the GBBO judges.  She also confessed that she intended to let Dad eat her slices but that they were too good to share and she ate them herself, and when it's the last pies you ever make too right you're gonna eat them.