Pumpkin Pie With A Vodka Pie Crust

I have become an "America's Test Kitchen" fan.

Since I have spent the past 6 or so months monitoring the stations Closed Captions, I see this show every day, along with their other show, "Cook's Country From ATK". I don't understand the difference between the two shows, but the science they use to modify the recipes, is the same.

One of their big differences, is in cooking a pie crust.

The problem with pie crust from scratch is getting just the right amount of water, so that when you roll the dough, it comes together. It is very driven by the days humidity and thus, not science.

What they do, is use vodka for part of the water in the recipe. You say to yourself, what does that do? Well, due to the alcohol evaporating off, during the cooking process, the crust is very moist when handled and rolled out, but it disappears during the cooking of the pie. This causes the crust to be nice and flaky, instead of doughy or hard.

I generally don't eat pie crust, for just that reason. So I decided to try it out.

The result was indeed a flakier pie crust that I did like to eat. It got harder and doughy as the days passed, but that first day was definitely a better pie crust.

I plan on making a pie called Pizza Dulce, sometime in my future, since I have the second crust left over in the freezer.

Cook's Illustrated's Foolproof Pie Dough

Ingredients

serves one 9-inch double-crust pie ,

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon table salt

2 tablespoons sugar

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces

1/4 cup cold vodka

1/4 cup cold water

Procedures

Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.