Julia Child Recipes Pie Crust

Oh, how I adore Julia Child, the famous chef and television personality. It isn’t just her great cooking know how and recipes- it is her! She viewed her cooking as a calling and left a dynamic culinary legacy. With this having been said I am here today to share Julia's Pate Brisee. Pate Brisee is the French version of a classic pie or tart pastry. Interesting fact is that by pressing the dough into a disc and chilling it rather than shaping the dough in a ball, it allows the pastry dough to chill faster. I have some photos to share, a video and of course the recipe below.

A welcoming home is the place of comfort, kindness, caring and good conversations. I just don't believe there is anything quite as loving as preparing food. When my husband's two Sister's, Brother and Father paid us a visit for a couple of nights I knew exactly how I was going to make them feel at home and that was with homemade food.

Seriously, if you are fortunate enough to have dough that is fragile and tender, you will have an extraordinary pie crust and that is a real promise.

In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs

If necessary just add enough flour a little at a time so the dough won't stick too much when rolling it out.

However, I prefer to make my Pie crusts by hand. I used to have a pastry cutter, but it annoyed me because the flour and butter would get caught in the blades.

I felt very French and very culinary and I did like that! I hope that Julia would be proud of this Grandma.

Apple Rose Pie Recipe

Julia Child and Her Homemade Pie Crust Also Known as Pate BriseeThis is a combination crust of butter and shortening. My all time favorite way to make a crust.

You see here are the discs I was speaking of. I wrapped them in plastic wrap and popped them in the fridge for just about an hour and a half. Very nice pastry dough to work with.

I will be sharing the Homemade Peach filling recipe for this pie this week. I just felt it was too much information in one blog post.

How To Make Foolproof Flaky Pie Crust

I have some fun news to share with you, well at least it's fun to me! Throughout the years I have been asked to put together a cookbook, flower book and craft book. I hesitated and I don't really know why....Well I am a point in life where I am not hesitating any more about much of anything! As long as it isn't illegal I am going for the gusto!

Jemma's Country Cook Book will be coming out the first week of August. You will find a small collection of desserts, breads, salads, main meals and side dishes. Each recipe has been tested many, many times by me and my family!I’m the pie baker in my family of pie eaters. I learned the craft from my grandmother, who was the family pie baker before me. Every summer she made pie after pie with all the apples my grandfather brought home from the apple trees in his garden.  She’d stack them up in her deep freezer then bring one out and pop it in the oven every weekend when we visited her.  Ahhhhh…...

I stuck close by my grandmother’s side, observing and learning everything she did. I simply adored her! When she gave my own pies her stamp of approval, I was delighted! She passed down to me her rolling pin, made especially for her by her father-in-law, my great-grandfather. A Hungarian immigrant, those famous noodle makers and dough rollers, he found her rolling out noodles one day with what he considered a sub-standard rolling pin. He promptly went out to a tree, secured the proper piece of wood, and proceeded to make her a fine rolling pin by hand with nothing more than simple hand tools. This same rolling pin hangs today in a place of honor in my kitchen, and its memories are treasured every time I roll out a noodle or a pie crust.

Julia Child's Cuisinart Pie Crust Recipe

Julia Child’s Pâte Sablée is my go-to-recipe when I want a tender, delicate pastry crust for fresh fruit tarts.  With a higher sugar ratio than pâte sucrée and the addition of egg, pâte sablée is the richest of the French short pastry crusts. With a fragile yet crisp texture, it is sweeter and more cookie-like.

There are different techniques for making pâte sablée. Julia’s recipe uses chilled butter and vegetable shortening which she quickly works into the dry ingredients. I often just use all butter. Other methods, including the one used by Pierre Hermé, cream the softened butter and the sugar together before adding the flour. The dough can be made by hand or in the food processor.  I have included the metric weights for the recipe because I find it so much easier to measure by weight than with measuring cups.

The fraisage...or final blending of the dough. Use the heel of one hand to smear the dough two-spoonful bits at a time across a lightly floured pastry board.

In Julia Child's Food Steps…a Incredibly Easy Recipe And An Unforgettable Trip To Paris

The higher sugar content of this pastry crust makes a stickier, more fragile dough that is more difficult to roll out. The dough can be rolled out on a lightly floured surface or between two sheets of waxed paper. It can even be pressed directly into the tart pan.

After chilling the pastry crust, line the bottom with parchment or aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. This will prevent the sides from collapsing before the crust is firm.

For small tartlets, I find it easier to form the dough into small balls and then roll the dough out into little circles on a floured surface. Alternatively, the small balls can be pressed by hand into the tartlet shell.

Julia Child Quotes That Make Us Love Her Even More

When lining and filling small tartlets with parchment and pie weights, I find it easiest to press another tartlet tin on top of the crust to hold its shape during freezing and baking. The crust dough would then be sandwiched between two tartlet tins. This replaces the need to line the tartlet shells with foil or parchment and then filling with pie weights.

The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days before rolling it out. It can also be stored in the freezer for about a month.

Baked pastry shells can be stored in an airtight container for several days or in the freezer for about a month before filling and using.

How To Make An All Butter Pie Crust, French Pate Brisee Step By Step

Gives the equivalent of 1 cup of flour as 5 ounces or 140 grams. Depending on the method of measuring and other factors such as the type of flour and humidity, flour can weigh from 4 to 5 ½ ounces per cup.