Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

Back To Betty - Recipe Review: Canned Cherry Pie

Review: First Impression - I wanted to try this recipe because I was pretty sure it would be better than a pie made with canned cherry pie filling and also I have a very hard time getting fresh sour cherries where I live. I'm glad I gave it a whirl.

I need to note that I did one thing differently in this recipe - I did NOT add the flour.

I don't like gloppy pie filling and I was pretty sure that the addition of flour to the cooking fruit/sugar mixture was going to generate a pie filling almost indistinguishable from that canned filling I dislike.

 

Found on page 303 of the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, the recipe uses canned sour cherries (NOT canned cherry pie filling), sugar, the juice from the can of cherries, almond extract, cinnamon  and the basic Betty vintage crust. (page 299).

If you don't own the book and need the master recipe for the crust click here.

Recipe notes:

1) It says to use 2 3/4 cups canned cherries and juice but does not really tell you how much of the measurement can be juice and how much should be cherries. I was not adding the flour so I was pretty sure I would need more cherries and liquid (and the mixture cooks down) so I used two entire cans of cherries and the water they were packed in. If I make this again I will probably cut the water in half because the cherries generate more liquid as they cook.

2) Because I was skipping the flour I added more sugar to help the mixture thicken - sort of like making cherry jam.

3) There is a note in the recipe to put the top crust on the pie quickly once you have the filling added. This is very important to do so you don't get a bottom crust that gets soggy or refuses to brown. I made sure the top crust was all rolled out and ready to go before I even started the filling. If you are afraid it will dry out, cover lightly with plastic wrap.

4) The pie cooks in a very hot oven so make sure to use a pie shield to keep the edge crust from burning. I did this but added it too late and the crust got very dark. (Everyone ate it anyway :-) )

Final Impression: Turned out not too bad but also not my favorite. I might try it again and see how it works with frozen cherries - something that probably was not readily available in 1950.

But I sill maintain that when it comes to cherry pie really nothing beats a pie made with fresh sour cherries!

For notes on the other cherry pie recipes in the 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook click here.

Additional images for reference:

I used 2 cans basic store brand canned tart cherries packed in water

You must cook the cherries first - let the mixture thicken and the cherries will get more red the longer you cook them.

The filling shrank down so the pie was pretty flat - I might add more cherries next time. But it set up well and cut easily.

Here you can see how well the filling held together when I served a slice.

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

Back To Betty - The Cherry Pies

I used to hate Cherry Pie.

Seriously.

Hated it.

This is because, during all my formative years, the only cherry pie I ever met contained canned cherry pie filling.

Gloppy, cornstarch thickened, sickly sweet, canned cherry pie filling.

Blech.

Then I met two things.

1) A friend with a tree bearing fantastic sour cherries

2) The 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook with a great fresh cherry pie recipe.

Betty offers 3 real cherry pie recipes and 1 "mock cherry pie" (More on that one later.)

All use the standard piecrust recipe from pages 298-299 - if you don't own the book here are some links to crust recipes:

For Betty Crocker's vintage crust click here.

For Anne's Personal Piecrust recipe click here.

1) Fresh Cherry Pie - pictured above and found on page 304. (Look down to the bottom left of the page under the master recipe.)

This is the recipe I've been using for years now but I do NOT add the cinnamon. It competes with the almond extract. You might think it's odd to add almond extract to a cherry pie but it strangely brings out more of the cherry flavor.

Just as not every apple makes a good apple pie, not every cherry makes a good cherry pie. Please note that the recipe calls for SOUR cherries.

With the right cherries this is a FANTASTIC pie.

The only negative thing I will say about making fresh cherry pie is that pitting the cherries is a royal pain - even with a cherry pitter it is time consuming - and you should always check the cherries for bugs as you pit them. No matter where the cherries came from - market or home tree - bugs like to live in them :-)

2) Canned Cherry Pie. Found on page 303 I have never made this pie because A) I never read the recipe closely and thought it used canned cherry pie filling (see previous rant) when, in fact, it uses canned cherries packed in juice. B) I never really noticed that you can actually buy canned cherries packed in juice here and now in 2020.

In the full spirit of the Back To Betty project I am now armed with two cans of cherries and plan to make and review this recipe.

3) French Glace Cherry Pie. This is a single crust pie found on page 321.

"Glace" is French for "glaze" and French Glace pies all require you to make a sort of jam glaze out of half of the fruit you will use in the pie. I have to admit I've never been a huge fan of glace pies and also that after reading the recipe thoroughly it sounds as though the end result will be a lot like a pie using canned cherry pie filling. (Again - see rant above.)

If you decide to try it yourself please note that this recipe uses sweet cherries and that you have to boil half of them instead of mashing them the way the master recipe says to do.

4) "Mock Cherry Pie" - page 309

I'm rather suspicious of this recipe - the 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook has a number of "mock" recipes where the chief requirement seems to be that the resulting food looks like something else but does not actually taste like it.

It's hard to imagine what the raisins add to this recipe in terms of "cherry pie imitation essence."

However I may try the recipe someday because fresh sour cherries are hard to find where I live.

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on ebay and other sources for old used books.

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

Back To Betty - Recipe Review: Blueberries And Cream Pie

Review: First Impression -  I will probably not be making this pie again. (I would stick with the regular Betty Crocker Blueberry pie recipe found on page 304 or click here.)

But I'm going to go through the recipe blow by blow so that you know why.

Found on page 314 of the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook this recipe uses the standard vintage Betty pastry recipe for a one crust pie. (page 310 or click here if you do not yet own the book.)

If you look at the photo above you will notice there is extra crust in the form of cutouts. This is because I stupidly forgot the first rule of following a recipe - to READ the recipe first.

Because all the Betty Crocker pie recipes use the same basic crust, I had jumped in and made a two crust batch just assuming I would need both crusts. When I opened the cookbook and realized my mistake I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to add some cutouts on the top :-)

And I still had some pastry left over so I sugared it and baked it up and we ate it quick as lightening before the pie was even done :-)

This recipe calls for you to make a cream, sugar, flour mixture that you will pour over the berries after you have put them in the pastry shell.

Before baking it looks like this:

Other adding that small extra bit of crust I followed the recipe exactly.

I put the oven at precisely the temperature specified and left the pie in the oven for the recommended time. I even made a note that it says to bake until the filling is "set".

And I thought it was.

But after letting it cool for a while and then cutting into it I discovered a gluelike mess - rather like porridge. The bottom crust was super underbaked and you could still see the cream and flour in the filling.

And when I tried to lift out a piece I got this:

Never one to give up on a pie I threw on a pie shield (to keep the already very brown edge crust from burning up completely) and tossed it back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

The result was a much firmer pie and the flour and cream have disappeared into the blueberries to make a thick filling.

Now when I cut a piece it looked more like a proper slice of pie.

But, as I said in the beginning, I probably will not make this pie again. After the second bake I imagine I got the pie that you are supposed to get from this recipe but, to me, the end result was as gloppy as if I had used canned blueberry pie filling rather than fresh blueberries. At $4 a pint (out of season) that was a waste of some terrific berries.

I'm sad.

Betty almost never lets me down :-(

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

Back To Betty - The Blueberry Pies

The 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook features 4 recipes for Blueberry Pie.

All of them use the standard piecrust recipe from pages 298-299 - if you don't own the book here are some links to crust recipes:

For Betty Crocker's vintage crust click here.

For Anne's Personal Piecrust recipe click here.

The first thing to note is that all for recipes four blueberry pie are what I call "sub-recipes". Meaning you will find them in subsections of other master recipes.

For instance, Fresh Blueberry Pie is found on page 305 right under the master recipe for fresh berry pies.

Another note - almost all fruit pies in the Betty Crocker cookbook call for adding cinnamon to the sugar mixture you will use in the filling.

I do NOT do this.

I tried it the first time I made each recipe but decided I only like cinnamon in apple pie. The blueberry pies taste much better when the true blueberry flavor can come through without the adulteration of cinnamon.

1) Fresh Blueberry Pie. Found on page 304, this is the recipe I have used most often and it gives great results. There is a small note in the recipe mentioning the addition of lemon juice for tartness. I find that whether or not to add lemon juice depends a lot on the time of year you are making the pie and the overall quality of the blueberries. Berries available out of season are often quite tart and do not require extra lemon juice. Berries at the height of summer tend to be sweeter and you might want to add the juice.

2) Canned Blueberry Pie. Found on page 303, I have never made this recipe and, frankly, am unlikely to because the right kind of canned blueberries are pretty hard to find.

Canned blueberries from 1950 are NOT to be confused with today's canned blueberry pie filling. The 1950 canned blueberries were precooked berries in a juice or syrup as opposed to canned blueberry pie filling which has thickeners like cornstarch to create a precooked gloppy filling. I personally NEVER use canned blueberry or canned cherry pie filling because I am not a fan of glop.

I imagine in 1950 canned blueberries were much more readily available than fresh - how times have changed  - fresh blueberries are now so plentiful, and available almost all year, that I never use frozen blueberries either.

3) Blueberry Rhubarb Pie - page 306.

I have a confession - I never noticed this recipe until I started this project but last year I started adding rhubarb to my blueberry pies of my own volition for three reasons. First, I was out of lemon juice and wanted to add a little tartness. Second, I have MASSIVE amounts of rhubarb growing in my backyard and am trying to find more ways to use it creatively. Third, my husband pretty much refuses to eat rhubarb - I snuck it into the blueberry pies and he never noticed and wolfed them right down :-)

The Betty Crocker version is half blueberry and half rhubarb. Mine is only about 1/4 rhubarb.

Overall the blueberry/rhubarb recipe is pretty much the same as the fresh blueberry pie on page 304 but I have found that you do have to be careful with the rhubarb.

To avoid a soggy gluey pie be sure you have let the rhubarb "sweat" for a while in a separate bowl. Do this by sprinkling some sugar over the diced rhubarb and let sit for at least 10 minutes. Drain all the juice and then sprinkle the diced rhubarb in amongst the blueberries. You can add plenty of sugar to the rhubarb after it is mixed into the rest of the filling but do NOT add flour to the rhubarb - it gets gluey if you do. Only add flour to the sugar mixture that will coat the blueberries.

4) Blueberries and Cream Pie - page 314

I have never made this and it looks pretty interesting so, in the spirit of this project I will make it and post a review.

Final Note: If you are a pie novice looking for your first fruit pie, nothing could be easier than blueberry - just wash the berries and check for stems and you are ready to go! No coring, peeling, slicing, pitting etc.

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on ebay and other sources for old used books.

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

 

 

Back To Betty - Recipe Review: Cheese Crust Apple Pie

Review: OK - straight out of the gate - this might be my new favorite apple pie recipe!

Found on page 302 of the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, this apple pie is super easy and amazingly delicious!

It uses the basic Betty vintage crust, tart apples, cinnamon sugar, butter, and grated cheese.

Reproduced here for educational purposes and to encourage people to go buy a copy of the original book.

If you need the master recipe for the crust click here and the recipe referred to in this one click here.

Now for my notes on the recipe:

1) I'm ignoring that little verse about a kiss and a squeeze - it was 1950.

2) I have no idea what "sharp yellow American cheese" was - we have so many cheeses now that the cheese referred to here maybe no longer exists or is probably called something more specific. I decided to opt for a medium cheddar and it came out great. I think I'm going to keep making this recipe and experiment with other semi-hard cheeses.

3) It says nothing about the temperature of the butter - I used room temp butter so that it would not poke through the crust - it worked fine and baked up well but would have been a real mess to work with if I didn't have some great tricks for handling wet dough - see below for these.

4) Pay close attention to the fact that the cheese goes in the TOP CRUST ONLY.

5) If you have taken the time to read through the methods for rolling out dough (page 300) you will know that Betty Crocker recommends using a pastry set - this consists of a large cloth on which to roll out the dough and a "pastry sock" which covers the rolling pin. When you make a crust like the cheese crust these extra tools are really important! They help you handle the dough without adding a lot of extra flour that would make the crust tough.

I have been using a pastry cloth for years and I SWEAR by it. I also use plastic wrap as you will see in my "tips" section below. Pastry cloths and pastry socks are readily available on the internet and very inexpensive.

5) When I "rolled it up like a jelly roll" and then folded it in on itself it was pretty shaggy looking but it still worked.

6) It says to serve warm - I ate a piece that was still warm and it was heavenly - and the cheese had a slight chewiness to it that was surprisingly good. I ate another piece later that was cold and, while still very tasty, it was definitely better when it was warm.

Things I did differently:

1) I used my own personal crust recipe that is half butter and half shortening (the Betty recipe is 100% shortening) Click here for my piecrust recipe.

2) I sprayed the top crust lightly with water and then sprinkled course "raw" sugar over it. I always finish my fruit pies this way - Betty offers it as an option on page 307 in the "beauty touches for pies" section.

3) I baked it at a lower temperature - I always bake my apple pies at 350 (low in the oven to help the bottom crust brown better). All ovens are different and, over the years, I've discovered that if I bake a pie at the 425 degrees in the recipe I will have a burnt top crust by the time the filling starts to bubble up. I probably should stick a thermometer in there and see what's going on with my oven.

Because I baked it at a lower temp I did leave it in about 20 minutes longer than it says in the recipe - but I checked it every 10 minutes once I passed the 35 minute mark.

So one of my biggest tips about handling piecrusts is the use of plastic wrap (or "cling film" for you international readers). I use it at various stages of the pastry making process (you can do everything shown here with just two pieces of wrap - one for the top and one for the bottom)  - here are my tips and tricks and a couple pics of this specific pie:

I not only use plastic wrap to gather the dough into a ball, I also start rolling it out into a disk while it is still in the plastic wrap

Then, still in the plastic wrap, I flip the dough over and roll some more so it's nice and smooth with no cracks

After I unwrap the dough from the plastic wrap I lay it on the lightly floured pastry cloth and cover the top with the same piece of plastic wrap - then I don't have to use a pastry sock - lift the plastic occasionally and re-position so that the dough will continue to stretch. Another advantage of the plastic is that it keeps the dough from cracking so much at the edges.

If you roll the dough with plastic wrap on top it will stick enough to help you get the crust safely into the pan and even adjust it - remove plastic before filling the pie!

Add the apples in layers of thin slices and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with butter between each layer - a layer uses about 1 1/2 medium sized apples

Here is what the cheese crust looked like when I rolled it up- notice how shaggy the edges are.

Now the jellyroll has been folded inward twice - it's VERY messy but we will fix it.

I used the plastic wrap again to force the cheesy buttered crust back into a ball and eventually a nice disk - this is how we fix all those cracks and also keep the soft butter from making a mess everywhere

Again I've rolled the crust out using a floured pastry cloth underneath and plastic wrap over the top

I've used plastic wrap to help transfer the crust and adjust it on the top of the filled pan

Gathering the top and bottom crust together and folding it over to seal the pie can be a messy business - again - plastic wrap can help with this

This is the last time I will use the plastic - to help make the fluted edge of the pie - this dough is too messy to put my fingers directly in contact with the crust - it just sticks to them and makes a giant mess.

I keep a generic spray bottle (available at dollar stores) filled with water so that wetting down the top crust is super easy.

After I've sprayed the top of the pie with water I sprinkle brown "raw" sugar over the top for extra texture and crunch!

My last tip - whenever I make a pie that is going to bubble up and release a lot of juice while baking I put a pizza pan underneath it to catch everything. I learned this the hard way after a 'pie-juice-sugar-fire"

 

Back To Betty - The Apple Pies

The 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook features 5 recipes for Apple Pie.

4 of them use the standard piecrust recipe from pages 298-299 - if you don't own the book here are some links to crust recipes:

For Betty Crocker's vintage crust click here.

For Anne's Personal Piecrust recipe click here.

 

Reproduced here for educational purposes and to encourage people to go buy a copy of the original book.

No matter which recipe you choose, be sure to read through the first one at the top of the page because it discusses different kinds of apples.

The apples you use in a pie really, really matter. Use the wrong apple and no matter how carefully you do everything else the pie will be a disappointment. In the year 2020 we have an astonishing array of apples available to us but I still personally swear by the apples of my grandmother's day - Jonathans and Macintosh. In a pinch I will use Granny Smiths but they have to cook longer because they are firmer. There is also a mention here of adding lemon juice only if your apples are not tart enough. I've never had to add any lemon juice because I use tart apples.

1) "Apple Pie"

The first apple pie recipe on page 302 is the closest thing I've found to my grandmother's. It's pretty much the only apple pie we ever had growing up and is still my family's favorite.

Amazingly simple, it consists of thinly sliced apples, cinnamon sugar and butter.

If all your life you've been eating apple pies made with nutmeg and/or allspice you really should try this simple recipe that only uses cinnamon - it really lets the flavor of the apples shine through rather than disappearing in strong spices.

The fact that the apples in this recipe are sliced rather than cut into chunks makes a big difference in the the way the apples cook all the way through.

This is just a fabulous pie - if you want to impress everyone you know, making this pie for them will do it!

2) "Green Apple Pie"

This is basically the same as the standard apple pie recipe but with more sugar to compensate for the tartness of green apples and some flour added if the apples are extra full of juice.

3) "Deep Dish Apple Pie"

Until I tried this recipe I had no idea that a traditional "deep dish pie" does not have a bottom crust! I googled deep dish pies and "voila" Betty is right! No bottom crust!

This explains years of unsatisfactory deep dish pies with soggy bottom crusts - so much extra filling makes it almost impossible to get the bottom crust properly browned.

There are really only two differences between this recipe and the standard apple pie - the lack of a bottom crust and the addition of twice as much filling.

4) "French Apple Pie"

I expected this to be a traditional French apple tart or "tarte tatin" but it's not that at all. It seems to be more of an apple cobbler with a pastry bottom crust and a "crumble" topping. Because of the amount of sugar in the crumb topping the sugar added to the apples is cut down slightly. Otherwise this is still pretty much the same as the standard apple pie.

5) "Cheese Crust Apple Pie"

Now THIS one really intrigues me! It uses cheese in the crust (the top crust only) and seems to have some extra butter as well. I'll be making this one tomorrow and posting the review of the results :-)

Final Note: There is a tiny "All You Have To Do" at the bottom of the page that mentions using unpeeled apples to:"save time and work", "also vitamins and minerals", "adds color and flavor". Taking into account all the pesticides that often get used on apples I think I'll be skipping this tip....

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on ebay and other sources for old used books.

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

Back To Betty - Betty Crocker's 1950 Piecrust Recipe - Double Crust

If you have not yet gotten your hands on a vintage 1950 copy of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, here is the basic recipe for "two-crust" piecrust that is found on pages 298 and 299.

Reproduced here for educational purposes and to encourage people to go buy a copy of the original book.

This is pretty much the standard crust for all Betty Crocker 1950 pie recipes. Every once in a while a recipe will have a note about altering the crust - be on the lookout for these if you are using the book for pie.

I've given you the actual photos from the book so that you can see the method - but in case you cannot easily read the ingredients here they are as well:

9 inch pie

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• *2/3 cup shortening
• 4 tbsp. water

8 inch pie

• 1 1/c cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• *1/2 cup shortening
• 3 tbsp. water

You will notice there is an asterisk by the shortening * - it is because there is a special note in the recipe about adding 2 tbsp more shortening if you are using shortening that is hydrogenated. I always do this. I think it's because hydrogenated shortening is "pre-creamed" and that changes the density the shortening and the ratio of shortening to flour. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone here on the blog will enlighten me in the comment section :-)

If you would rather use my personal piecrust recipe that uses 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening click here.

Back To Betty - Pastry - My Tips

The Betty Crocker 1950 Picture Cookbook pastry recipe uses only shortening and no butter.

But, as I've explained here, while a crust made without butter is very tender, it is also less flavorful and often too delicate to get a clean slice out of the pie pan. So I use a half shortening half butter combo.

The good thing about having shortening in the crust is it's a lot less fussy.

But if you are using butter it's still good to have that butter as cold as possible when you add it to the flour.

Dicing that butter without letting it heat up to room temperature can be a challenge - especially in warm weather.

So here's my trick for dicing butter into small pieces quickly without too much fuss.

1) Make a lengthwise cut with a sharp knife in the stick of  cold butter. I do this right on the wrapper.

2) Flip the butter over and make another lengthwise cut that intersects the first cut and creates quarters.

3) Cut a small slice (about 1/8 inch) off the end of the stick and place it on the secret weapon - an egg slicer - to turn your butter pat into nice tiny cubes. This works best if you push the butter through the slicer right over the bowl of flour and directly into the mixture.

4) Repeat until all butter is diced. 

Using this trick will give you nice small pieces of butter in no time at all!

If you want to learn more about pie and pastry and the Back To Betty project (baking my way through the Betty Crocker 1950 picture cookbook) choose the category "Back To Betty" over in the right hand sidebar.

 

Back To Betty - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Pie But Were Afraid To Ask

Well, first off, that headline is a lie.

This post will cover everything Betty Crocker had to say about pie in 1950.

In the first edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook the section on pies and pastry starts on page 293 and runs through page 328.

Let's jump into Betty's world of Pie....

As with every section of the book we begin with:

"The Yellow Page"

(Click here for an explanation of book layout)

Impression - Yellow Pages always feature a quote by Betty - compliments of the General Mills Marketing Division - this one is about how "American" pie is. My first reaction is to want to look up the origin of the phrase "American as Apple Pie." I've always wondered why pie is considered such an American thing so many other countries have long standing pie traditions.

Then vs Now - The thing that jumps out at me on this page is the image for "summer pies". I'm trying to decide if it's racist or not. It seems harmless in this context but it makes me think of less harmless racial stereotypes of smiling barefooted black and brown people.....

 

The Essay

(These always appears at the beginning of a section)

Impression - That "American Pie" thing is presented here again - now I really will have to look it up.

What I Learned - There's an interesting bit about pie dishes being long and called "coffins" and there is a claim here that Americans invented round pies. I never heard of either of those things before and now I have to go look those up.

Important Note - At the bottom of the page they mention their new "simplified methods" including a pastry that does not need to be chilled. When you get to the pastry recipe you will see that this is because it uses only shortening and no butter. I take a deep dive into the use of both shortening and butter in my post here.

 

The Two Page Photo Spread

(not every section has one of these but when there is one a reference key is often printed on the back of the "yellow page.")

Impression - My first impression is how far we've come with food photography. My second impression is how homemade these pies look in contrast to the images we see in cookbooks nowadays. The third thing I notice is how thick the pastry is - I generally put thinner pastry on top of my pies.

Weird - At first I thought there was a small tart consisting of nothing but a pastry crust filled with olives tucked up there on the right hand page. When I went back to the reference key on page 294 I discovered it's actually a green grape pie. A reminder to check out the reference key!

 

The Methods

Pages 289-301

Impression - The methods pages in the Betty Crocker Cookbook are usually the most important and most helpful parts of the book. The pastry pages are extremely helpful for tips on achieving flaky pastry and handling the dough.

What I Learned - 1) To mix together all dry ingredients first 2) To add shortening (or butter) in two stages, mixing with a pastry cutter each time  3) To add water 1 tablespoon at a time by sprinkling it lightly 4) To fluff with a fork after each addition of water 5) That different kinds of pie pans produce different results.

Then vs now - Almost every modern pastry recipe uses a food processor - in my experience food processors produce crust that is NOT as light and flaky as crust made by hand. Contrary to popular belief a hand made crust does not take that much more time and is not terribly hard  if you follow the steps for hand made crust outlined in the Betty Crocker Cookbook - especially if you incorporate some shortening into the crust instead of using only butter. Butter has water in it while shortening does not - so butter will always react with flour to produce longer gluten strands and longer gluten strands will always make a tougher crust than the shorter strands you get with Crisco or lard.

What I do differently - There is really only one combination of ingredients for pastry (salt, flour, shortening, water) for the entire section and it is supposed to be suitable for almost every pie in the book. I find that different pies benefit from different pastries. Below are some changes I make for different kinds of pies:

Large open faced berry tart - 1) Follow the pastry recipe for an 8 inch two crust pie but instead of all shortening use a combination of butter and shortening. (3 parts butter and 1 part shortening) This makes a stronger crust that will hold up well when you unmold it from the tart pan 2) Add some sugar to the crust to give even more strength and aid in browning - the actual amount does not matter that much but do not exceed 7 teaspoons

Fruit Pies - 1) Half butter half shortening instead of all shortening 2) Add 3 tsp sugar to crust 3) Add 1 tsp vanilla extract after adding the water and fluff again with a fork (only use real vanilla, not imitation - real vanilla is alcohol based and imitation vanilla is not so it will alter the moisture ratio.)

Pecan Pie and other very sweet pies like southern sugar pie - 1) Half butter half shortening instead of all shortening. 2) Add slightly more salt to the crust to counter the sweetness of the filling.

 

Page 307

Impression - These tips still hold up for making decorative pie crusts.

Then vs Now - These days you might be tempted to use parchment paper instead of wax paper but I suspect that the crust will fall off the paper before you can get it onto the pie...

Favorite Trick - Making the lattice separately and then flipping it onto the pie!

 

Page 310

What I Learned - 1) To avoid shrinking of the dough when baking don't stretch it when you put it in the pan 2) Not to prick the pastry with a fork for a pastry that will get filled before baking

Favorite Trick - Pouring filling into the pastry AFTER putting it on the oven rack.

Special Note - Up in the right hand corner you can see the words "All You Have To Do"  - these little notes are scattered all over the book and you can easily miss them when they are embedded in a page like this or amongst the recipes. They always have good tips for either avoiding a potential problem or enhancing a recipe. Here's another one:

 

Page 315

Impression - This page is Betty Crocker's answer to puff pastry - finally we have an alternative to the single pastry recipe presented for all the rest of the pies.

What I Learned - That you can supposedly make quick puff pastry out of regular pastry dough simply by adding extra butter and folding it up and refrigerating. I have not tried this yet but I will.

Interesting Note - the "English Pastry" referenced here is what fans of the Great British Baking Show will recognize as "hot water crust".

 

And Then There's This:

Impression - I NEVER heard of this - I find the idea of making a custard separately and then "slipping" it into a baked crust fascinating! I'm totally going to have to try this!

In Summary - There is a lot to unpack in this section and a LOT of recipes for pie. Keep checking back for recipe tests and reviews of specific pies as I bake my way through the book!

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on Ebay and other sources for old used books.

Images reproduced here are for educational purposes only.

Back To Betty - Piecrust Part One: How Betty Saved Me

My grandmother made Killer Pies. 

With a fabulous crust made from scratch.

Which is why it gives me great shame to confess that, for many years, this was my pie crust of choice.

Here I have to stop and admit that I am a teeny bit competitive. And when I'm not any good at something, I tend to avoid it.

So, when the first two pie crusts I made from scratch turned out tough, tasteless, and all around awful, I immediately fell back on the roll out pie crust.

Why were those first crusts so awful?

Because I wasn’t using my grandmother’s pastry recipe

I was using Martha Stewart’s pastry recipe.

I did everything, everything, she said to do for a perfect crust.

I used only grade A unsalted butter, I kept everything, including the mixing bowl, chilled to within an inch of its life. I didn't overwork the dough. 

And the result was a tough, almost inedible, piecrust.

And I told myself, "Well everything Martha does is perfect - so if I can't make this work, it must be me.

And I gave up.

Until I was saved by the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook.

Which, of course, contains an entire primer on pie pastry.

With an important revelation:

The Betty Crocker pie crust is made with vegetable shortening.

Yes, you heard me, vegetable shortening.

Not expensive butter that had to be just the right temperature.

Just plain ol' Crisco, right out of the cupboard.

I wasn't too sure about this - every cooking show around was singing the praises of butter - how could this be better?

But it was.

It was Fabulous.

And it was Easy.

And, it turns out, it was also the recipe buried in that recipe book from my grandmother. The one I had not bothered to look at once Martha came along.

I was sold.

And ready to enthusiastically abandon the pre-fab refrigerator crust.

Between the Betty Crocker recipe and my own trial and error I’ve learned a few things about pastry over the years:

• Using only butter makes a crust that has buttery flavor but tends to be tough, no matter how little you handle it.
• Using only shortening makes a crust that is incredibly tender but not always durable. It also usually needs a little extra salt to balance out the flavor.
• A compromise of half salted butter and half shortening produces a crust that has great flavor, is nice and flaky, generally holds up to being served out of the pie dish using only a fork, and is almost foolproof.

Another nice thing about using any almost any amount of vegetable shortening or lard in a pie crust is that you no longer have to worry so much about all that chilling and keeping everything cold. Even if you are also using a lot of butter.

If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, and want to try your hand at a scratch piecrust using Betty’s recipes, head to the section on pies and pastry that starts on page 293. (In the 1950 edition) If you can't get your hands on a copy of the book but want Betty's vintage crust recipe click here.

A note about why I keep bringing up the 1950 edition - over the years many of the Betty Crocker recipes have changed as ideas about health and diet have changed. I can't promise that later editions of Betty Crocker recipes will give the same results as those I cite here.

If you want my recipe for pie crust – which is very similar to Betty’s – click here.

In Part two of piecrust we will continue with the Betty Crocker pastry “how-to” section and my own tips and tricks for dealing with scratch crust.

I promise you that perfect made-from-scratch piecrusts are not as hard as you think once you know a few tricks.

And the results are WELL worth it!