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William Doran — Tues., October 5, 2021

Dearest Readers,

October began just four days ago, and with it comes pie season (at least this far South - fall technically began two weeks ago). Baton Rouge’s first real cool front is supposed to arrive tomorrow and has me craving roasted meats and root vegetables and anything in a pie crust! Pie is a versatile medium for a whole host of pleasurable, edible things (including breakfast) and any adventurous cook should have a good pie crust in their arsenal.

Many call it pumpkin or baking season, but we all know this is really pie season. Who invented pumpkin spice, anyway?

Basic Pie Crust

Cranking up the oven and throwing together a pie crust will bring light and delicious smells to the gloomiest corners of fall and winter. Anyone can (and should) make a beautiful, flaky crust from scratch. You will feel like a Michelin-star chef (at least until the pie is gone), and anyone in the vicinity of your kitchen will thank you. Though the crust itself was not originally intended for consumption, its modest beginnings were highly functional: as a vessel to cook, preserve, and eat other foods - specifically meats. It was preceded by clay, and leaves before that, to capture the juices of whatever was being roasted while also preventing burning. Before it became the delicate pastry it is today, pie crusts were even donated to the homeless or the hungry. Eventually, fat was added, and the Italians and the French got a hold of it, and the modern pastry was born.

Knead the dough right on the countertop. Flour can’t hurt you - just don’t wear black. See step-by-step photos here.

Pie dough has remarkably few ingredients - flour, butter, salt, and water - and is surprisingly low maintenance if you follow a few simple rules. Keep everything cold, don’t overwork the dough, and don’t rush. Don’t bother dirtying a food processor or a bowl either. Clean hands and a clean countertop are your most effective pie-making co-conspirators … so save the dirty dishes. To me, the most enjoyable part of making pie is plunging my hands into the raw ingredients. Smushing cold, floured butter between your fingertips is an underrated and very satisfying experience. It also allows you to feel your way through the recipe, using your hands to determine the right texture for the dough.

Breakfast Pie (Quiche Lorraine)

Anything worth eating tastes better in a pie crust, so why not breakfast? It’s cheese, it’s eggs, it’s fatty cuts of cured pork - it’s breakfast in a pie.

I’m going to tell you this is breakfast pie because, well, it is breakfast pie … but also because breakfast pie sounds much more achievable (and less like an old lady luncheon) than quiche Lorraine. The traditional French quiche is really just an onion tart: an open-faced pie filled with a creamy onion custard, a little cheese, and some form of bacon. Master the art of a really good pie crust and you’ve got something - breakfast in a pie crust. The key is cooking the onions down into a deep golden jam that tastes so good it might never see the bottom of a pie crust.

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