The first time I volunteered to bring pie to Thanksgiving, I bought crust at the store ~ that's what any other mom would do, right? After all, when we were dating I made DH an apple pie "from scratch" for our first Valentines together. I used store-bought crust and he raved about it. Fast-forward a few years: Thanksgiving rolled around and I thought, I can do pie, we LOVE pie! I got home from the store with crust and DH gently made sure I knew that that was just second fiddle to homemade crust. Now I knew his mom made them from scratch -- and they were always great. But I just thought that was beyond me.
Well, I fumed and grumped my way through trying to make it from scratch. Did you know that the more you work pie crust, the less usable it gets? You can roll it out 2 maybe 3 times before its scrapped. How dare this man make me feel so inadequate when all I wanted to do was make pie for HIS family?! Wait -- don't leave yet -- there's a moral to my bad attitude.
At this point in our marriage, I was in the process of learning to honor my husband and his wishes, even when they seemed ridiculous to me. If it's within my power to give, and does not dishonor God, do I have the right to refuse my husband anything? No ~ part of the big "S" is honoring and respecting our husbands -- loving them on their level. The way to a man's heart may very well be through his stomach because it is a way of serving him. I've since learned Acts of Service is his love language (big surprise -- because mine is so NOT that). By refusing to make crust for him, I was refusing to love him on his level. *Thoroughly convicted*
I went about figuring this out -- my mission was to conquer pie crust for the love of my husband! I realized my tools were wrong. I mixed the crust wrong -- a pastry cutter works so much better for blending the shortening and flour. I had the right recipe from the church cookbook, but wasn't chilling it long enough either (patience is not my strong suit). I couldn't for the life of me get a crust to go from table to pie dish without tears. Here's my system now: non-skid mat and wax paper first, and a bit of flour on the wax paper.
The plastic rolling pin did not hold a candle to marble - it is firmer, heavier, and can stay cold while your rolling crust. They are not that expensive and make a great gift, too! Once my dough is chilled properly, I put my pin in the freezer for a few minutes. Then I can roll out crust without it sticking to the pin. Again, a small amount of flour helps, too.
Then I roll the wax paper with the crust (just as the ones from the store come) and unroll it directly into the pie plate. Follow the same process for the top crust, if needed. I learned the hard way to cover the edges too -- you can buy a shield, or just fold foil into quarters, cut a curve and shape the result around the pie.
Now, years later, I feel like I can make pie without scrapping a crust or two in the process (and without wanting to wield my marble rolling pin elsewhere)! Once I got rolling figured out, I got a nifty crust cutter for fun shapes in a top crust -- cookie cutters work, too. You can brush the crust with egg-wash or milk, sprinkle sugar if you like, or just leave it plain.
Perseverance pays off... if you're willing to undertake the "impossible." I actually enjoy making crust this way, now -- even get a creative fix from it! By the way -- if you still buy crust, don't feel bad, I would too if it weren't so near and dear to DH's heart :)
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