When I started to research alternative pie crusts, I found a recipe that used olive oil, so I tried it, and then began experimenting. Ultimately I did not get the results I wanted, and concluded the reason was the recipe was trying to imitate a butter pie crust—rolling out dough with a solid cold fat (butter) that would layer with the flour, to get a flaky crust.
The original olive oil recipe called for freezing the olive oil to make it solid, and then chilling it again before rolling it out. The olive oil always wanted to revert to a liquid, however, and there was too much of it, so the dough oozed olive oil. So I reduced the proportion of oil in the dough, and pretty much gave up on getting a flaky crust. I also stopped the futile exercise of freezing the olive oil before starting the process.
Two notes: One, for the best flaky crusts in any kind of baked pastries (fruit croissants or tarts or whatever), you're better off using commercial filo dough sheets. Two, you can certainly get a flaky pie crust with white flour and butter, but the taste by itself is nothing special (unless you like the taste of white flour and butter, and I know there are some of you out there :-).
Over time, I added new ingredients and varied the proportions. My crust does not attempt to imitate a traditional crust. It is something different, just as a graham cracker crust is its own thing. I find I like the whole wheat flour and olive oil crust used in this pie enough that I can eat it all by itself (your results may vary, but here we go).
The filling. Apples and cranberries. I use Fuji apples, which are sweeter than the perhaps more traditional tart Granny Smith apples, but with a sweeter apple, you can get by with less sugar. The cranberries provide the tanginess. Three large apples and 1.5 cups of cranberries. I use a lot of cranberries, mostly for my chocolate banana-nut cranberry bread (with oatmeal and grated carrot), and fill my freezer with fresh cranberries when they are in season (November), enough to last a year.
Peel the apples, core and cut them up. I use a tool to do this in one step, yielding eight pieces, but you can of course do it the old fashioned way (four pieces per apple or whatever). I then feed the pieces into my food processor, using a slicing blade.
With this method, the apple pieces end up in slices and a lot of lesser bits, which gives the filling a more blended texture. If you cut the slices by hand, you will likely end up with more uniform slices, but you can tailor the mix to your taste. This is what the food-processed apples look like:
Add the rest of the ingredients with the apple slices, mix them up, and put the bowl in the refrigerator to allow them to meld. Here's what you need:
3 large apples.
1.5 cups of cranberries.
1/3 cup apricot preserves, heated so it's runny (you can substitute another flavor).
1/2 cup sugar (I use white for this).
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour.
1 teaspoon cinnamon.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
The dough. The ingredients:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour.
1 cup all-purpose flour.
1/2 cup olive oil.
1/4 cup sugar (I use turbinado raw cane sugar for this but any kind will work).
1 egg.
1 teaspoon baking soda.
1 teaspoon salt.
1/2 cup water.
Mix the dry ingredients in a food processor (using the regular blade), then add the remaining ingredients and process until the dough comes together.
Pull the ball of dough out and put on a floured surface (I use whole wheat). Form the dough into a rough cylinder which will make splitting the ball in two parts, bottom and top. A ratio of 55% for the bottom and 45% for the top works well.
Using enough flour so the dough doesn't stick to your counter or rolling pin, roll the bottom a little bigger than your pie pan. I use my offset spatula to help lift the dough off the counter, fold it in half and lift it in the pan.
Then load the filling into the pie. It should look like this. Because the pieces are a mix of sizes, it's not necessary to load the filling in a big pile because it doesn't settle much.
Traditionally, pie dough is draped over the edge of the pie pan (both bottom and top), and then pinched together along the edge. Of course, you are then advised to cover the protruding fluted edge with foil so it doesn't burn. My approach is to eliminate the over-exposed edge so you can eliminate the foil. Nobody eats the dried-out crust edge anyway.
Now put the top on, tucking the edge down into the bottom crust—nothing on the lip of the pan, like this:
Put the pie in the oven on a middle shelf, with a pan on the lowest shelf to collect any drippings, like this:
I use a glass pan, and use the "Pie" mode on my oven, which cycles the convection fan on and off. I bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes. Metal pans require a hotter temperature (or longer time), and your oven will likely be different. Out of the oven:
On the remodeling front, I continue to work on the pottery studio floor tile, mostly on the south end now. I needed to order more floor tile and am waiting for that. I don't want to end up with a bunch of tile left over, so I've been making adjustments on the tile patterns to minimize waste (I'm using four colors/sizes of tile). Here's where I am now. I just installed the cabinet bases today.
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