Sizzling Kitchen? Right here’s Tips on how to Maintain Your Pie Dough From Melting

Whether or not it is as a result of inevitable warmth of summer season, the cumulative results of simmering a pot of stew all afternoon, or a vacation baking extravaganza, the kitchen has a means of warming up sooner than some other room. Air could also be a poor conductor of warmth, as Kenji has defined earlier than, however it may be mighty efficient over time, slowly warming your kitchen by levels. Room temperature is greater than the air round you; it represents the temperature of your flour, your mixing bowl, your countertop, and your rolling pin, too.

Flipping on the A/C could enable you to really feel higher within the quick time period, however until you crank it 24/7, it will not have an opportunity to chill your gear and pantry staples. For instance, we do not run the air-conditioning at Critical Eats over the weekend when nobody’s round. Blasting it on a summer season morning cools the place right down to 74°F (23°C), however plunging a thermometer right into a bag of flour tells a unique story.

This 78°F (26°C) flour is properly beneath physique temperature, making it really feel cool to us, however it’s a veritable warmth supply to a block of butter. That is a giant deal for pie dough, as a result of its texture relies upon fully on butter. When that butter’s good and chilly, the dough will really feel as comfortable and supple as well-worn leather-based—not moist or sticky within the least. However when “room temperature” climbs above 73°F (23°C), every part that touches your dough will heat it on contact, softening the butter and making it sticky to the contact.

That is why pie dough appears to wish much less water on a sizzling summer season day; comfortable butter features extra like a liquid than a stable within the dough. People knowledge says that humidity performs a job in how a lot water your dough wants, however I’ve gotta disagree. Flour has a reasonably low capability to soak up moisture from the air, and that very property is what retains it secure on the shelf. If flour may suck up sufficient ambient moisture to vary how a recipe behaves, it will mildew as shortly as a loaf of grocery store bread.

Adapting to comfortable butter by utilizing much less water within the dough is mostly a horrible thought. For starters, it makes it tougher for gluten to kind, producing a weaker dough that is extra prone to stretch and tear. Weak doughs are additionally susceptible to slumping out of form within the oven, they usually crumble readily as soon as baked. Not solely that, such doughs are thirsty as properly, keen to soak up moisture from a pie filling, making the crust soggy and pale.

When issues warmth up within the kitchen—say, something above 73°F—the one viable resolution is to concentrate on conserving the dough temperature beneath 70°F (21°C). Meaning taking a couple of steps to counteract the warmth sources in your kitchen—and I am not speaking ice water or frozen butter, fixes that do not do something to handle the warmth throughout.

Refrigerate Every thing

The primary and best step is to toss every part within the fridge, out of your bowl and rolling pin to the pie plate itself. (A warm-ish pie plate can soften the dough on contact, encouraging it to stay and making it tougher to slice the completed pie.) You may additionally wish to refrigerate the “dry combine” (flour, sugar, salt) of your recipe, and the water, too, because the measuring cup itself could also be heat sufficient to knock the coolness off chilly faucet water.

The objective of this step is not to get issues frosty-cold, however to simulate the temperature of a barely cooler kitchen in order that the completed dough clocks in at someplace between 65 and 70°F (18 and 21°C). Outright frozen substances are dangerous information, cooling the butter to the purpose at which it not has the plasticity to roll and fold inside the dough, which is able to trigger it to crack and crumble.

Maintain It Chunky

If a recipe offers detailed directions for dealing with a temperature-sensitive ingredient like butter, take heed! For instance, my Outdated-Usual Flaky Pie Dough calls for 2 sticks of butter lower into half-inch cubes, every roughly smashed.

These particular instructions preserve the items comparatively giant and thick, and due to this fact chilly and agency. Chopping the butter into smaller items will enhance the floor space, creating thinner items of butter that shortly flip sticky and comfortable. That is exponentially more true for butter that is rubbed or lower right into a positive meal, which will even give the pie crust a crumbly, biscuit-like texture.

Ice, Ice Child

If it is really sizzling within the kitchen, your countertop itself is the enemy, a supply of warmth to each sq. inch of dough. Happily, there’s a straightforward repair.

Divide a number of cups of ice between two gallon-size zip-top baggage, add a little bit chilly water to every, seal tight, and lay flat till the counter beneath is good and funky. Once more, you are not making an attempt to show your kitchen right into a winter wonderland! You merely desire a countertop that will probably be your ally in sustaining a dough temperature of between 65 and 70°F.

Know Your Dough

An instant-read digital thermometer makes it straightforward to establish substances which might be too heat from the beginning, and it is a foolproof strategy to monitor the temperature of your dough. If it is very warm in your kitchen, purpose to maintain the dough round 65°F (18°F). Any colder and it will not behave because it ought to, making a digital thermometer particularly useful once you’re softening doughs which have been made and refrigerated prematurely.

Flour Generously

When it comes time to roll, do not skimp on the flour. I am not speaking a couple of pinch or a sprinkle, however total handfuls, tossed above and beneath. It will preserve the dough from sticking because it’s warmed and smashed between the counter and the pin. You may at all times mud away extra flour with a pastry brush, so do not be shy!

Bear in mind, these steps are merely meant to counteract extreme warmth within the kitchen, so you might not want all of them. Simply being conscious of how the temperature of your substances and gear can affect a dough will go a great distance towards serving to you keep away from the frustration of wrangling a sticky mess. Maintain the dough temperature between 65 and 70°F, and rolling it out will at all times be a breeze.

September 2016