Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Recipe: Buttermilk Pie Crust

Apple Pie courtesy of Amber Blodgett

When I was six or seven years of age, I would sit on a tall “step-stool” at the kitchen counter and watch my mother bake.

For a single crust pie the dough was rolled out, draped into a glass or ceramic pie-plate, and docked with a fork.

The edges were crimped to look like Ric-Rac ribbon. *

She would then balance the dish in one hand and trim the sides with a knife.

Those bits of leftover dough would be topped with sugar and cinnamon, and popped into the oven for a quick treat.

In many years of sitting there, I never learned to make the pastry.

As a newlywed it seemed a worthy skill, so I scheduled a grown-up girls-day pie-baking lesson from Mom.

That morning she rose prior to 5:00 a.m., and turned every bit of fruit, shortening, and flour in the cupboard into pies  - before I arrived.

I still can’t make a decent crust.

This apple pie is courtesy of our dairy herd manager, Amber, using our farm’s own buttermilk and butter.  It is NOT gluten-free.

* Bonus points if you know what that looks like.

Amber's Apple Pie
Buttermilk Piecrust
Adapted from The Animal Farm Buttermilk Cookbook
Makes one 9-inch crust

2 Cups All-purpose Flour (unbleached)
1 TB Sugar
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
4 TB Unsalted Butter, cold, divided into 8 pieces
½ Cup Buttermilk, ice-cold (from the freezer)


Mix together flour, sugar, and salt.

Cut butter into flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in buttermilk all at once and gather pastry into a ball.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least an hour or overnight.

Roll out dough and place in a pie tin.


Preheat oven to 375f

Bake for 8-15 minutes, until lightly browned.

This pre-baked crust can be filled with pudding, or the recipe doubled and baked with fruit filling– as in the pie pictured.