Pie Crust Advice and Pumpkin Pie

[spyridona]

I love to make pies. Pies are great and they've become a real part of any major family gathering (or gathering of my friends) where I have access to an oven. I haven't met a type of pie I don't want to make.

However - I've been asked to make up a pie for Memorial Day weekend. No problem, I think. Then I realise I'm dealing with a bunch of food allergies - no soy and no dairy allowed. I figure I've got two options - graham cracker crust or a shortening pie made with coconut oil (solid at room temperature, very unhealthy iirc). Then I remembered coming across recipes for olive oil crusts, but I could never get the hang of those - I'm used to making butter pastry so having a liquid oil is foreign. I was wondering if any of you had any advice on how an olive oil crust might be differently handled than a butter crust?


Great Pumpkin Pumpkin Pie

Vegetable Shortening Crust
4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups shortening (palm oil)
1 egg, beaten
1 dash vinegar
1 dash vanilla
1 dash salt
~1 cup water

Mix flour and shortening as you would with butter, until a meal consistency is reached. Add the egg, vinegar, vanilla, and salt. Mix. Slowly add water by the teaspoon until it holds together loosely when pressed. This is enough for a two crust pie, two bottom crusts, or one bottom crust and some tarts.

Pumpkin Pie Filling
! can prepared pumpkin
1 egg beaten
1/4 teaspoon arrowroot
pinch of orange rind or dash of orange juice
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar

Mix well. Pout into pie crust. Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes and then 350 F for about an hour (until set in the middle).

Comments

[entrenous88]

I have a great oil-based crust, though it's vegetable oil. I imagine you could use olive-oil no problem, though. Really, it's the easiest crust you'll ever encounter -- just roll it out between two sheets of wax paper, and you can patch it up with no discernible bumpiness or breaks when it comes out of the oven.

Do you want the recipe, or are you going to try the olive oil recipe you already have?

[spyridona]

A recipe would be great. (Possibly my difficulty is coming from getting a bad recipe offline.)

[entrenous88]

Cool. As someone else asked for it as well, I'll post the recipe at this comm a little later today.

[st_aurafina]

I'd love this recipe, too, if you don't mind? I think my dad used to make an olive-oil pastry, it was really good.

[entrenous88]

Definitely -- I'm running out the door now, but will post the vegetable oil recipe as an entry to the community a little later today. :)

[amadi]

I'd be concerned with olive oil that unless you use a very light, unflavored olive oil, you're going to have that olivey taste in the midst of your pie. If it's a savory pie that might work, something else, I don't know.

Is there an objection, if you're going for oil, to using canola?

[spyridona]

Not at all - I'm mostly concerned about the differences between a liquid and a solid in making the crust.

[amadi]

I'm wondering if there's a middle ground to be found, in terms of the interplay of solid/more solid fat, and how it behaves at different temperatures, by using a solid (stick-form) dairy and soy-free margarine. (Which is the devil most times, but right now you have issues to work around.)

This might be a time when you have to go for some trials.