| 320 | 321 | 322 | 323 | 324 |
| 1 | 103 | 205 | 308 | 410 |
|
them in sauces, gravies and soup. Try to avoid them in pie fillings.
Comparing Starch Thickeners
How viscous
Starch
Coloring
on a scale of
1
-3 (1 thinnest)
Flavor
Pasty
Pasty
Pasty
Slightly
pasty, bitter
Flavorless
Appearance
All-purpose
flour
Cake flour*
Bread flour
Rice flour
Brown-gray
Off-white
Gray-white
1
1
1
2
Nearly opaque
Nearly opaque
Nearly opaque
Nearly opaque
Brown-gray
Arrowroot
Cornstarch
Tapioca
Off-white
Off-white
Light gray
2
1
3
Pearly, trans-
lucent
Translucent
Nearly
flavorless
Flavorless
Nearly
transparent
*
Cake flour gives the smoothest, whitest sauce of all the three wheat flours
Finishing touches
Both the type of filling and old tradition dictate whether to use a single crust, double crust,
or a lattice top on a single crust. Different pies are more attractive or more practical with one or
another type. The choice is often yours. Do you, your family or guests like pie crust? Use double
crust. Are they concerned with high fat and cholesterol? Use a single crust. Is eye appeal important?
Use a lattice top. Whichever you choose, you can put almost anything into a pie or tart pastry.
Creativity starts with the finishing touches. You can do anything with the edges or, if you
use double-crust, with the top. Leftover pieces of chilled dough is your starting material for designs
of any sort. Stick the finished pieces on the top crust with just a hint of moisture. Just remember, the
dough must remain cold. If it starts warming up while you are creating your masterpiece, take a rest
and let it cool in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Pie wash on the top crust or lattice add beauty and shine. When you brush melted butter,
milk, cream, egg wash or egg yolk on the crust, the finished product turns an appealing chestnut
color. Sprinkling some granular sugar on top gives the crust an extra sparkle. A fruit glaze is a
traditional finish on tarts for a beautiful effect.
The French prefer a close relative of our American pie pastry called galette pastry. Its
composition is similar to our pie pastry, but they construct it free-form by hand, like pizza dough,
and bake it on a baking sheet, not in a pie plate, until crisp. Butter is the traditional fat of galette
pastry, and with its high butter content it is difficult to roll it out neatly like a pie dough—that is
why the free-form construction.
Tart pastries are higher in total fat, therefore richer than pie pastries and they contain sugar.
The fat and sugar inhibit gluten development so tart doughs are not as susceptible to overworking as
American pie doughs are. In fact, you can safely reroll them twice if needed without sacrificing
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