Doughs to Know
By Sidonie Maroon, Food Co-op Culinary Educator, abluedotkitchen.com
I’m sharing three easy doughs to use for all kinds of sweet and savory pies. They’re riffs on Nick Malgieri’s and Flo Braker’s standards. My two favorite pastry cookbooks are “Nick Malgieri’s Pastry” and “Baking with Julia” both are excellent choices to add to your library, because, besides mouthwatering recipes, they take the time to explain the craft of making good pastry.
Top Pastry Tips
Use a food processor to mix the fat into the flour.
Keep the butter cold. Chill the dough before rolling, and if possible before baking.
Use an acid based liquid, like buttermilk for the liquid.
Small chilled butter pieces hitting the hot oven lift and create a flaky crust.
Don’t be afraid to fail, move on from past pastry flops, and practice makes perfect.
Best Flaky Pie Dough
One double crusted pie or two single crusted pies
An all around super flaky pie dough
Ingredients
2 ⅓ cups/ 315g whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose or gluten-free
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks/ 225g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
2 large eggs, beaten as for scrambled eggs
Directions
1. In a food processor, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Pulse several times to mix.
Add the chilled butter pieces. Pulse 5 to 8 times, or until the butter pieces are mixed throughout the flour. Keep the butter pieces the size of small lentils.
Add the beaten eggs, and pulse until the dough almost forms a ball. The butter pieces need to remain small but distinct to create a flaky crust, so less is more.
Divide the dough into two disks, wrap each in parchment paper or plastic, and chill for a couple of hours before rolling.
Pasta Frolla
A sweet and tender Italian pie dough
One double crusted pie or two single crusted pies or tarts
Wonderful for savory and sweet pies. It’s a short crust, not a flaky one.
Ingredients
2 cups/ 260g whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose or gluten-free
⅓ cup/75g coconut sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 stick/ 112g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2 large eggs, beaten as for scrambled eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, optional
½ teaspoon lemon extract, optional
Directions
In a food processor, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Pulse several times to mix.
Add the chilled butter pieces. Pulse until the mixture looks like cornmeal.
Add the beaten eggs, and process until the dough forms a ball on the blade.
Divide the dough into two disks, wrap each in parchment paper or plastic, and chill for ½ hour before rolling.
Galette Dough
flat, open face, free form tarts
Two 8-inch galettes
Makes wonderful free form pies.
Ingredients
2 ⅓ cups/ 315g whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose or gluten-free
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks/ 225g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
Approximately ½ cup buttermilk
Directions
In a food processor, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Pulse several times to mix.
Add the chilled butter pieces. Pulse 5 to 8 times, or until the butter pieces are mixed throughout the flour. Keep the butter pieces the size of small lentils.
Put the buttery flour mixture in a work bowl, and sprinkle the buttermilk over one tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork to distribute it. Continue until the dough is moist enough to stick together when pressed.
Divide the dough into two disks, wrap each in parchment paper or plastic, and chill for a couple of hours before rolling.
Summer Tomato Galette
Makes two 8-inch open faced pies
Ingredients
One recipe galette dough pre-chilled
½ cup cream cheese
½ cup sour cream
1 cup crumbled firm tofu
1 cup sauteed onion, from 1 large onion saute until soft in olive oil
½ cup sundried tomatoes
½ cup green olives, chopped
½ cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, minced
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon runny honey
2-3 medium in season tomatoes for the top
Directions
If they are salty, soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water to cover, and allow to sit for
10 minutes, strain and chop.To a food processor: add the sauteed onion, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, parsley and thyme. Pulse until chopped and combined. Add the cream cheese, sour cream, vinegar, cayenne and tofu. Pulse together. Taste and add ½ teaspoon salt if needed. Remove to a bowl and refrigerate.
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
On parchment paper, roll out, one at a time, the chilled disks into 8-inch circles. Pinch together any cracks in the circumference. Put 1 to 1 ½ cups filling in the middle of the galette, and, leaving 1 ½ inches around the outside, level the filling. Fold the edges towards the center, in a free-form way, and smooth out any cracks. Arrange the top with tomato slices and rub the tomatoes and crust with olive oil.
Bake on a middle rack, on a baking sheet, with the parchment under the galette for 30 minutes, or until golden.
In the accompanying Coop blog I’ve included several unique gluten-free versions of pastry for you to try.
Nouveau Galette Dough
Two 8-inch galettes
Ingredients
Dry Flour Mix
½ cup pre washed dry quinoa
¼ cup dry chickpeas
¼ cup dry buckwheat groats
½ cup tapioca flour
¼ cup flaxseeds
1 tablespoon psyllium seed husk powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Wet Dough Ingredients
1 stick, 112g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
½ cup cold milk
Directions
Grinding The Flour
Set up a large work bowl, with a towel under it to catch any rouge flour, and set a hand held sieve over the top of the bowl.
Add the mix to a high-speed blender, with the additional dry ingredients and spices.
Blend at the highest speed for 1 minute, and sieve into the bowl. Regrind the remaining fines for 30 seconds and add them to the flour. The flour should be fine, light and fluffy.
Note: Any high-speed blender with at least 1200 watts will work to grind the flour. I use a Vitamix and like the convenience of also blending the wet ingredients in the same container. A good quality coffee grinder will also work. A grain grinder should work, although I haven’t tried it out.
Making The Dough
Add 2 cups of flour to a food processor. Add the chilled butter pieces. Pulse 5 to 8 times, or until the butter pieces are mixed throughout the flour. Keep the butter pieces the size of small lentils.
Mix the apple cider vinegar and milk together.
Put the buttery flour mixture in a work bowl, and sprinkle the liquid over one tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork to distribute it. Continue until the dough is moist enough to stick together when pressed.
Divide the dough into two disks, wrap each in parchment paper or plastic, and chill for ½ hour before rolling.
Best Gluten-Free Pastry Mix
My gluten-free pastry mix makes 28 cups. That’s enough for 14 double crusted pies. It’s easy to make and have one hand in the freezer.
In a big mixing bowl, the bigger the better, mix:
4 bags (623g each) Bob’s Red Mill sweet white sorghum flour
1 bag (454g) Bob’s Red Mill tapioca starch
1 bag (623g) Bob’s Red Mill potato starch
1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons golden flax-meal
¼ cup plus 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
¼ cup plus 1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
2 tablespoons fine grain sea salt.
Question and Answer
Why Sorghum? It’s a whole grain, mild tasting and high in protein. I like it better than rice flour.
Why use tapioca starch? Because it helps provide a light, crisp texture.
Why use potato starch? Because it adds moisture and fluffiness.
Why use flax meal? Because it helps to bind the mix and make a rollable dough.
Why use xanthan gum? Because xanthan gum is a natural product that helps bind the dough together.
Why use baking powder? Because it creates a lift, to separate the flaky layers.Why use sea salt? For its superior flavor
Tips for rolling out gluten-free doughs
They don’t stretch and are more like working with clay than wheat dough, needing more patching and pinching. It’s not cheating to press a dough in with your fingers, if you’re in a hurry or frustrated.
Keep the dough cold. Chill before rolling. It’s sometimes easier to roll the dough out between floured parchment paper.
I often use a tortilla press, lined with parchment paper and floured to make small rounds for tartlets or pot pies.
Best Gluten-Free Tip
Use an acid ingredient in your liquid. I use apple cider vinegar or yogurt with water. The ingredients bind better and I like the flavor. Use 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar per ½ cup ice water.
Walnut Phyllo Dough
Makes enough for two 9-inch tarts or pitta
15 minutes plus rolling and baking time
Amazing, a delicious pastry dough, without grain or added fats! It’s rich with all the nuts, but the pastry is rich, so it’s still on the occasional treat list. Another attribute of this dough is how it rolls out and hangs together easily when baked. How does it taste? Like a good loaf of whole wheat bread right from the oven. It’s less like a flaky pie crust, and more like a brioche or yeasted crust. Use it for both sweet and savory recipes, whole pies or individual hand pies. I’m still experimenting with all its possibilities. As a gluten-free pie maker, I’m thrilled with how moldable it is, so I can create all the shapes and decorations that are sometimes difficult with gluten-free grain based doughs.
Ingredients
1 cup walnuts
½ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup flax meal
2 tablespoons psyllium husk powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
½ cup boiling water
Directions for making the pastry
Using a Vitamix or high-powered blender, process all the dry ingredients together, on the highest speed, into a coarse flour. I run the machine until I hear the motor slowing down. Try to not have any large chunks of walnuts left, because they can tear the dough when you are rolling it out.
Dump the flour into a mixing bowl, using a spatula to get everything out. Break it up between your fingers until it resembles a fine meal. Add the boiling water and then the vinegar to a glass liquid measure and pour over the flour, quickly mixing them together with the rubber spatula. Continue to mix until it comes together. Split the dough in half and now you’re ready to roll.
Rolling
You can make any shapes, and the dough rolls out thin without tearing or splitting. Tears press together easily. There’s no need to flour while rolling, but some oil on your hands will prevent sticking. For free-form tarts, I like to roll the shape I want on parchment paper, add the fillings, fold the edges in, and then cut the parchment paper around the shape, with an inch border, using the paper under the tart to move it onto a baking sheet.
Baking
Baking will depend on individual recipes, but a rough guide is to bake in a preheated 400F oven for 25 to 30 minutes. The thicker the dough, the longer the pastry should bake. Allow the pastry cooling time to help set the dough. I like to reheat the pastries before serving. The toasted walnut flavors shine that way.