[SCA] Purim cooking

[cellio]

Tonight I did a trial run of one of the recipes for the Purim event, a fish pie. The ones for the event will not all be as whimsical as this, but one probably will be.



(The tail "fins" slipped in cooking.) I'm not sure what to use for the eye. I'm thinking maybe a green grape (or half of one), but I didn't have any in the house.

I seem to have zero talent for pie crust. The first problem is that it was kind of tough (I mean even before baking); I understand that this means I kneaded it too long, but the line between "not yet one coherent ball of dough" and "over-kneaded" is, in that case, way too fine. As soon as it all held together I stopped.

I assume my problems rolling it out are related to this. I couldn't get it as thin as I wanted. It just wouldn't go, after a while. I suppose I should go looking for "pie crust 101" on Wikipedia or something.

Comments

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Cute fish!

I have never heard of a yeast-based pie crust. All the pastry crusts I know of rely on keeping everything chilled so the fat doesn't soak into the flour, but yeast needs warmth and time to rise. What exactly is this supposed to be like?

[cellio]

It's supposed to be bread-like. It doesn't get the structural support of a pie tin while cooking, so I would expect something a little sturdier than a conventional pie shell, but I overdid this one.

Hmm -- if I think of it as bread, maybe I could set the bread machine to doing the mixing and kneading for me. I'll try that experiment and see if it's any easier to roll out.

(I wonder how long the dough would keep -- can I make it at home in the bread machine several days out and bring balls of dough to the event? Fridge or freezer? I've certainly seen frozen bread dough in the grocery store (thaw and bake), but who knows what chemicals that stuff is loaded up with and how they affect the process.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

You can freeze dough at home; thawing is part of the next rise (longer than usual, natch). Don't leave it in the fridge for more than a day or so, because it's not cold enough to completely stop the rising process (which is to say, the dough will keep rising, slowly, in the fridge, and a couple of days' rise is too long).

[cellio]

Thanks!