One day until Pie Day, or Thanksgiving as it is also known.

November 25, 2009 rcakewalk

First off, these photos will not be as clear or artful as normal. It's hard to snap photos when your hands are covered in butter and flour. I am truly amazed that I've never dropped my camera thus far due to "kitchen hands", but I'm sure that now I've mentioned it, it will fall gracelessly from my grasp later this afternoon...

I decided to waiver from the Vodka Pie Crust I was planning to make for my Thanksgiving pies, and opted for the Alton Brown method since I've had nothing but success from his recipes in the past, and they used slightly less fat than the Vodka Dough. I was also in the mood for weights, and so out of the cupboard came my digital scale, and all the ingredients were assembled nice and neat in the food pro.

Check it out if you have 10 minutes:

Now, I did not use a brick of lard, mind you. I did use 2 T. of organic, non-hydrogenated shortening, and the resulting pie dough was beautiful and easy to work with. The most novel thing about this pie dough making method is that after food pro assembly, you simply toss the dough into a zipper top bag, and then gently knead it into a disk through the plastic. Mess free! I am the messiest pie dough maker ever, and nary a stray crumb catapulted from the counter during my whole process.

I mixed up the doughs yesterday, and pulled them from the icebox to roll this morning. Another amazing thing is Alton tells you to cut two sides off the zip top bag (one of my sides was the ziptop part), and then use the plastic to roll out the dough. This is genius, since I barely needed any additional flour to roll, and absolutely nothing sticks to the board.

When I got to this point, I did slice off the other two sides of the plastic bag, and then repositioned the plastic as needed. I think I've found a way to have pie more often! Usually, I stick to cake, since I do love it, often it only requires one bowl, and I can manage relative neatness while assembling.

Finished pie photos will most definitely accompany my Thanksgiving dinner post, sometime after the fete tomorrow or Friday...

But look at my work area! Not messy at all, and now I'm on to assembly of the Potato and Pumpkin Bake that Marisa at Foodinjars.com told me (and all of her readers) I had to make. Meanwhile, if you haven't made a pie yet, or just needed some encouragement to go ahead and make one, give Alton's Recipe a try. You won't be sorry, and neither will your clean kitchen.