I just received a newsletter from a writer I admire explaining that she would be taking a month away because she's "thoroughly sick of [her] own writing voice. It's not writers' block. It's writers' cringe."​

I admire her for recognizing that sensation ahead of time and warning everyone of the forthcoming silence. I, on the other hand, have been privately suffering writers' cringe and taking more breaks than usual. 😬

In the spirit of getting back into things, while also continuing a break from our usual programming, may I share a pie crust recipe with you?

I've been developing it over the last year or so, swapping out some of the butter for olive oil, which allows the dough to hold together better with less water. (Water is the enemy of flakiness in crust.) I've also been experimenting with a blend of wheat flour and gluten-free flours. Gluten is helpful to keep the crust from falling apart when you roll it out, but makes a crust tough if you over-work it. I've found a 50-50 blend of wheat flour to gluten free works well.

Side note: The reason I'll never be a food blogger or recipe influencer is that I just really can't stop in the middle of cooking to take pictures. This one above is the only one I took. Didn't even take a picture of the finished pies!

However, the recipe is a good one, and I'll share it with you.

This recipe makes two crusts, enough for one apple pie with a top and bottom crust.

Dry ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
• 1/2 cup millet flour (also Bob's Red Mill)
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg

Fats

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cold
• 6 tbsp olive oil

Ice water

​

Note: to make the crust completely gluten free, omit the wheat flour and double the quantities of rice and millet flours.

Then, at the step where you add water, start with an egg, beaten with just a little bit of water (about a teaspoon) and add that first, instead of pure water. The egg works a little like gluten, holding the dough together when you roll it out. Then proceed as usual, adding water bit by bit until the dough sticks together in a ball.

Step 1

Put all the dry ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and process until they're blended evenly

Step 2

Cut the butter into 1/2" cubes and plop them into the flour blend. Process until the mixture is sandy and the biggest butter chunk is no bigger than a pea.

Step 3

Add the olive oil to the butter - flour mixture and blend until evenly distributed. You'll have to scrape the sides of the food processor once or twice to get it nicely blended. Don't over-mix! Stop once the oil is evenly blended in.

Step 4

Dump the mix into a large bowl and pour about 2 tbsp of ice cold water over it. Mix it gently and briefly with a spoon or spatula. If it starts to clump together, use your hands to see if it's wet enough to hold together with a gentle squeeze. If so, gently form the dough into two balls of even size and then shape them into discs about an inch thick and 5" across.

If the dough falls apart when you try to make balls, add more water, a little at a time, until the dough barely holds together, then form into discs.

Cover the dough tightly. ( Most recipes say to wrap in plastic wrap, but I find it unnecessary. I use a saucepan lid that fits my mixing bowl perfectly.) Refrigerate for 30 minutes - 1 hour.

Step 5

Make your filling. In the pies above I used apples from the tree in our backyard that is currently producing more than we can eat! There are so many good apple pie filling variations, so just go with what you've got. Or peaches! Or berries! All pie is good pie.

Oh, hey, look! I did take another picture:

This is my favorite single-purpose kitchen gadget, the Pampered Chef apple peeler/slicer/corer. With the quantity of apples our tree produces, it's a critical piece of kit. (Thank you Cynthia for the recommendation!)

To the apples I added a little sugar, (maybe 2tbsp per pie? I didn't measure), a little cornstarch rubbed into the sugar (maybe 1tsp per pie?) some cinnamon and some nutmeg.

Step 6

Roll out the dough and put the pie together. More accomplished food folks on the internet will have made a million YouTube videos showing this process way better than I can explain it.

Step 7

Bake at 375 for about an hour, or until the top is nicely browned.

Cool for at least a couple hours before serving or the filling will be a runny mess.

I'm firmly in the camp that pie should be served with whipped cream rather than ice cream, but I recognize that the ice cream point of view is valid, and I certainly won't turn it down if offered! :)

I'll be back soon with more seedy stuff on a Seedurday in the near future.

ALSO - just to get it on your radar - I'll be running our big August sale in a few weeks. Keep your eye out for notifications!

Until soon friends,

Anne

When you’re ready, here are some more ways I can help you grow a thriving garden from seed:

1. Plan your seed-starting schedule with our ​free printable planner.​

2. Download the free ​Orta Seed Starting Handbook with all the basics you need to succeed with seeds.​

3. Take the guesswork out of watering with Orta Self-Watering Pots. (Find discounted factory seconds here!)

4. Join the Orta Seed Club to have 5 hand-picked, unusual & high-yielding varieties delivered to you every season.

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