Pie crust HELP!

Outdoorgirl said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

you threw away your food processor? oh well.

--

saerah

aware of the manifold possibilities of the future

"I think there's a clause in the Shaman's and Jujumen's Local #57 Union
contract that they have to have reciprocity for each other's shop rules."
-König Prüß

Outdoorgirl said:

follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

Go down to your grocers and buy a couple 9" deep dish pie crusts (they
usually come 2 to a pkg) already in a disposable pie tin. Mrs. Smith
makes a good frozen pie crust. I don't like Pet (Pillsbury). Often
there's a local brand that may be better. Screw the roll-your-own
routine. Life's too short.

nb

Outdoorgirl wrote on 07 Jun 2005 in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past
the crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty
years now. Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it
to the pan. Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor
which was a very expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any
and all advice including the step by step version; pie crust for
dumbies! Also, I purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a
pie/cookie mat, should these follow the food processor to the
landfill? Would deeply appreciate any guidence you could offer as
I fight my way through this hopeless fog of flour. Thanks.

Most crisco containers have a no-fail pie crust recipes right on the
back. Same with lard containers. Shame about the food-processor, that
woulda made it much easier.

--
No Bread Crumbs were hurt in the making of this Meal.
Type 2 Diabetic Since Aug 2004
1AC- 7.2, 7.3, 5.5, 5.6 mmol
Weight from 265 down to 215 lbs. and dropping.
Continuing to be Manitoban

You can send me your food processor!

I only use Crisco. Equal parts of all purpose flour and Crisco, dash
of salt. Use fork and gently mush it together until it looks like
large grains of sand with a few pebbles in it. add a couple
tablespoons of water, mix, if it is too dry add more water a tiny bit
at a time. . Dump it out onto floured counter top and form it quickly
into a ball. tear off a hunk of the ball and roll it out with a
rolling pin, wine bottle, or iced tea glass. Perfect crust. Just try
not to handle it to much. It is not rocket science don't be
intimidated. Good Luck

Outdoorgirl said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

Is it too late to take back the food processor? They may save labour but
they are no use for making good pie dough. The trick ot good pastry is to
leave pieces of shortening in the dough so that it can melt and cook the
flour making it nice and flaky.

I use the recipe on the Crisco box. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and
then cut in the shortening with a large fork. Mix up the egg, cold water
and vinegar and stir it into the flour / shortening and keep and keep
stirring until it forms a ball. Divide the ball into two, flatten them out
a little, wrap them in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for half
an hour or more.

I like to use a pastry cloth to roll out the dough. Apply some flour to the
cloth, plop a disc of dough on the cloth and sprinkle with more flour,
flour the rolling pin and start rolling, rotating the direction each time
to form a circle.

Quoted message said:

You can send me your food processor!

I only use Crisco. Equal parts of all purpose flour and Crisco, dash
of salt.

Equal parts??? The Crisco recipe calls for one cup shortening and 2 cups
flour.

Quoted message said:

Use fork and gently mush it together until it looks like
large grains of sand with a few pebbles in it. add a couple
tablespoons of water, mix, if it is too dry add more water a tiny bit
at a time. .

Crisco recipe also calls for vinegar and egg along with the water.

It's a great recipe.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Outdoorgirl said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

Sometimes it's better to see.....

http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/cvt005.asp

Has a nice video to watch for "making the pie dough" and "rolling out
the crusts" and even "crimp or flute the pie crust edge"

Myself, I use an old Fine cooking recipe that varies from the
traditional by adding just a bit of cream cheese and baking powder.

You can use the food processor but you must be very careful to only
quickly pulse the ingredients to leave nice bits of fat and then again,
just quickly pulse to incorporate the liquid. The dough should be quite
crumbly when you take it out. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate
for a bit to allow it to all come together.

I prefer to roll out the dough between two layers of plastic wrap. Peel
off the top. Put my hand underneath the bottom layer and lift it. Flip
it over into the pan and peel away the bottom layer of plastic. No mess
on the counter. I cannot manage to keep it from sticking to pastry
cloths, silicone mats etc otherwise. Also, with the plastic wrap method
there is no need to dust anything with flour.

marcella

"Dave Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Outdoorgirl said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

Is it too late to take back the food processor? They may save labour but
they are no use for making good pie dough. The trick ot good pastry is to
leave pieces of shortening in the dough so that it can melt and cook the
flour making it nice and flaky.

A food processor can do an excellent job of making pie crust. As you say it
is a labor saver only and not an improvement over hand-made, but used
properly it is a valuable tool.

--
Peter Aitken
Visit my recipe and kitchen myths page at www.pgacon.com/cooking.htm

Peter Aitken said:

A food processor can do an excellent job of making pie crust. As you say it
is a labor saver only and not an improvement over hand-made, but used
properly it is a valuable tool.

Good luck to you if you can master making pastry with a food processor without
over processing the dough. I have used one in the past and was disappointed with
the results. I suppose that it would be a great help for someone without much
experience making pie dough, but from my experience the FP dough just doesn't
compare with my hand made dough.

I am not sure about the labour saved either. It takes me less than two minutes
to cut in the shortening and to stir in the wet ingredients. Cleanup is a breeze
with a stainless bowl and a fork, but cleaning the food processor takes longer
than the little bit I saved making the dough with it.

Once you have mastered making pie crust, then you'll go out and buy frozen
dough because its so much easier ! Or you can shortcut the process and just
buy the dough.

Anyway--

Basics - pie crust is a bunch of baby-pea-sized balls of lard (or Crisco)
each covered with flour, rolled flat together. Those little flattened
floured balls make flakes.
Working fairly steadily and kind of quickly in order to keep the mix cool
is important - and if the dough even thinks about getting greasy, i.e.,
where the flour and lard/Crisco start to think about being dough, the mix
goes back in the frig to recool.

For pie crust, think of the flour you use to keep the mix from sticking
to the bowl or cloth as thin insulation - cold, flour covered balls do not
stick - soft cookie dough sticks.

Points I found that work for me:

1) you do not "mix" lard with flour - rather, you "cut" the flour into the
lard to get the little balls (although some warm water recipes do make a
passable crust) with a cold pastry cutter in a cold bowl. (as you get better
at it, you might not need to use cold utensils)

2) You need to keep the flour-lard dough mix cold (as in cold flour and
cold lard/Crisco), and after cutting, put the pie dough in the refrig
freezer 10-15 minutes before rolling. Don't let the bowl sit on your warm
lap.

3) You need to roll the dough just a little, to get the balls flat - no
roll and roll and roll or it gets warm and sticky.

4) A pastry cloth for surface and roller is the only way to go until you
get pretty good and quick and get the hang of the temperature.
Flour the roller cloth, the surface cloth, and put the dough ball on the
cloth and then dust the top of the ball before rolling - well "dusted", not
caked with flour. I drew a circle, using my pie pan (a little bigger), with
a permanent marker on the cloth so I knew how big the crust needed to be.

5) Put the cool dough in the middle of the floured cloth, roll from the
middle to the edge using a slight-to-firm pressure depending on your dough
mix (and it varies) and use the middle of the roller to be even. - If you
press too hard, the flour-lard balls become sticky dough.
I go at it from different sides, using the middle-of-cloth-to-edge
method, rather than turn the cloth. It will be pretty even as long as you
square up on the dough ball and use the middle of the roller.

6) roll the crust on the roller to transfer it to the tin. Repair any tears
with an overlap, a bit of water, and a gentle press

7) make pie-crust cookies the first time rather than a pie. Takes about 8-10
minutes around 400F, cut into strips on a cookie sheet, pricked a few
places, and sugared. You can get a feel for the process and taste the
result.

8) when you do make pie, the top crust needs to be pressed to the bottom on
the edges - put it together, then wet your finger and wet the bottom edge as
you hold the top edge back, all around, then press the top edge to the
bottom - fork, spoon, etc, the tool depends on your decoration likes.

Hope it helps....

ps- I don't want the food processor, either - I think they are more work to
clean than it is to use my knife or my little Oscar.

"Outdoorgirl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

Outdoorgirl said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

I can't help you with technique. I gave up on making my own pie crusts
eons ago. But I can recommend an ingredient change that will make your
pastry extra special. Instead of water, use orange juice. My mom did this
all the time, and she made wonderful pies.

Carol

--
CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY
United States:
http://www.stopthehunger.com/
International:
http://www.thehungersite.com/

"Outdoorgirl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. <snip> Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies!

Hello, Outdoorgirl!

Pie crusts can be temperamental - humidity and temperature make a
difference. Here's how I make a double layer crust in my rainy and somewhat
cool town:

0.5 cup Butter (should be refridgerator (not freezer) -cold.)
0.5 cup Crisco veg. shortening (at room temp, some say "butter flavor" is
good)

Rub shortening into 3 cups of all purpose flour until the shortening is the
size of a pea. Add 0.5 tsp of salt and mix well. I sometimes use a food
processor to do this, but am very careful not to over process. Two or three
bursts is enough.

Cool water with icecubes. When cold, add a teaspoon at a time to the
flour/shortening mix until the mixture holds together in a somewhat dry
ball. The amount of water will vary quite a bit depending on conditions, so
you'll have to wing this one. I usually put in 7-8 teaspoons, but will put
in more in the summer. Roughly shape the crust into two small rounds, cover
with waxed paper, and put in the 'fridge for 30 mins or so. This will give
the crust time to firm up, which will make it easier to roll out.

When you're ready to roll the crust, prepare your surface. I don't use a
plastic pie sheet, but do use waxed or parchment paper on top of my rolling
surface as I find it makes it easier to remove the crust from the surface.
I sprinkle flour on the top and bottom of my cooled round of crust, then
roll, urging, not forcing, the crust into a 12-13" circle. I turn over the
crust once it's reached 8 inches or so in diameter, and dust flour top to
bottom as needed when the dough sticks. When it's reached the right size, I
put my rolling pin on one edge and "roll" the dough up onto the pin, lifting
the paper and peeling the dough off the paper over the pin. Roll the
dough onto the pie pan, making sure not to stretch the dough. Keep in the
fridge while you do the second crust.

Pre-heat oven to 425 deg F. Pop the pie into the hot oven for 15 mins, then
turn the heat down to 350. Bake until the crust is golden.

Hope this helps!
skg.

-- said:

Once you have mastered making pie crust, then you'll go out and buy frozen
dough because its so much easier ! Or you can shortcut the process and just
buy the dough.

I would not count on that. Once I mastered making pie crust and realized how
easy it is I wouldn't think of buying frozen dough. I won't even whole pies.
Like they say.... Easy as pie. :-)

Outdoorgirl said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

Oh, gee! You sound exactly like me! I remember the day - years ago, when I
was fed up with not being able to make a pie crust after years of trying.
I made 25 that day before I got it right.

The standard recipe is flour, shortening or butter, and a little cold
water.

What I found was that it wasn't the recipe, but the technique.

The "right" crust has a "feel". Because of this the best I can do is give
you a few tips.

Note: I'm in the Southern US, so we use self-rising flour. If you are not
and you don't, you have to add the levening to AP flour.

I don't use a food processor for my crust.

This is what I do.

In about a half cup of water, add a couple of ice cubes.

Cut the shortening/butter (S/B) into the flour (use two knives, a knife
and fork, or a pastry cutter [I've used all three]) until the flour is
crumbly (like cornmeal, if you know what that is).

Make sure that the flour is well coated with S/B.

From this point on: DON'T OVERWORK the flour mixture

Add the water by tablespoons, a spoonful at a time. Using a fork, gently
move the water into the mixture until the mixture makes a ball. For one
crust, you will need only a couple of tablespoons. Don't stir or mix or
beat or rough up the dough.

Don't knead the dough. Don't work the dough. It should fall out of the
bowl you mixed it in easily. Don't add any new flour into the dough.
(crusts are not like biscuits or bread that need kneading and the adding
of more flour.) If you hold the dough in your hand, it should feel
"greasy" (not a lot, but like play-dough or like holding a very, very cold
stick of unwrapped butter) It should make a tight ball in the bowl (unlike
biscuit dough)

Turn the pie crust out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Gently
mash into a hamburger patty-like shape. Sprinkle the surface lightly with
flour, coat rolling pin in flour. Gently roll from North to South and also
from East to West until you have a pizza dough-shaped thing bigger than
the pie pan.

Gently fold crust over to make it half its size and ease it into an
ungreased pie pan. Unfold and trim edges to fit.

NOTE: The Chefs today say wrap ball (before putting on rolling surface) in
plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so. But when my Gram made
this crust, she didn't have a frige.

Crusts are not as fragile as I have made them out to be here, but
technique is the trick and [whoever may be reading this] when we are
learning we need to be aware of things that can best be explained by over
simplifying and excessive caution.

While practicing, make one crust at a time, bake and taste, and keep or
toss.

According to my experience, you gave up 12 crusts too soon (VBG>. Good
luck.

Elaine, too

Outdoorgirl said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

After thirty years, you need to learn from a friend who knows how to
make piecrust. I was an idiot with bread until a neighbor said me she
would teach me how (20+ years ago) and now I'm pretty darned good at
it.

Let me tell you, it's a LOT harder to make piecrust than it is to make
bread!!! So don't beat yourself up. I learned how to make piecrust
from my grandmother, but I wasn't very good at it - so I took a class
from an excellent teacher many years after Grandma's death.

According to Grandma, you should use 1/3 C shortening for every cup of
flour (add a dash of salt). Cut the shortening into the flour... I
rub with my fingers. When I have lots of big "flakes" and the rest
looks like cornmeal shaped pieces, I know everything is encorporated.
That's when I add water until barely moistened and toss. You'll be
surprised at how it clings together! Shape it into a disk and let the
dough rest in the refrigerator for an hour.

"Outdoorgirl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill? Would deeply appreciate any
guidence you could offer as I fight my way through this hopeless fog of
flour. Thanks.

Why are you pitching them out? You failed to mention what the problem is.

Dimitri

at Tue, 07 Jun 2005 09:35:47 GMT in <1118136947.454509.156190
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, [email hidden] (Outdoorgirl) wrote :

Quoted message said:

I am determined to bake a pie however, seem unable to make it past the
crust. I have been pitching them out for close to thirty years now.
Just finished tossing another dozen that didn't make it to the pan.
Went so far as to purchase a kitchenaid food processor which was a very
expensive mistake. Would deeply appreciate any and all advice
including the step by step version; pie crust for dumbies! Also, I
purchased a nonstick rolling pin and a pie/cookie mat, should these
follow the food processor to the landfill?

There are several points to keep in mind when making pie crust.

First is the matter of working the dough. At every stage in the process the
critical point is - don't overdo it. Work gently and with a light touch,
and use the minimal amount of action necessary to get the dough to be
acceptable. It's important to remember that at each stage the dough will
seem hopelessly under-done when it's actually right.

So when you're cutting fat into flour, it will seem as though you can't
possibly have mixed it in enough when you're actually finished. "Cutting",
btw, is the correct action. You don't want to stir or mix. A pastry cutter
is OK but I find 2 knives is better. You crisscross them as you cut, almost
as though you were tossing a salad. Don't press or exert force. There
should still be big lumps in the dough. Generally it should resemble
something like very gravelly sand.

When you've mixed in the water, it will seem as though there isn't nearly
enough water. In fact, the dough won't actually hold together simply from
the mixing action. You will have to press it together and when it just
*barely* stays as a rough ball, it's right. Don't be tempted to add a
little more water because a crust will quickly go from perfect to like iron
with only a trivial amount of extra water over that needed.

When you've rolled it out, it will seem horribly close to crumbly and
nonuniform. There may be some tearing. Again, exert no force on the rolling
pin - rather, let the weight of the pin itself be what rolls out the dough.
The end result will look a bit like a very battered piece of flannel.
*Ease* it gently into the pan. If you can actually pick up the whole crust
with your hands, it's overdone.

Next is the choice of fat. The fat *must* be solid at room temperature, or
it won't work. For practical purposes this limits your choices to lard,
suet, butter, and vegetable shortening (e.g. Crisco). Each has their own
plusses and minusses.

Lard makes the flakiest pie crust, by far. You have to be careful, though,
because a lot of store-bought brands have various kinds of "off" flavours
or have been stabilised so as to be stockable unrefrigerated. If you have
access to a butcher who can give you fresh leaf lard, this is the best
choice.

Butter makes the most flavourful pie crust, but also the least flaky. It's
also the most difficult to work with for the novice.

Suet leads to an incredibly rich, flavourful pie crust, but is really only
appropriate for meat pies. In sweet pies its flavour will just be wierd.

Vegetable shortening is the least demanding to work with but for whatever
factor you're trying to optimise there are better (and worse) choices. It
yields crust that is flaky, but lard does better, and in addition
shortening always makes crust a little pasty in mouthfeel. It delivers
generally the worst flavour, except that poor-quality lard can be much
worse - almost inedible.

After that comes the matter of chilling. It's vital to have everything cold
as you begin the process. Cold fat, cold flour, cold water. I keep my flour
in the fridge along with the fat and the water. Once you've cut in the fat
and mixed in that bare minimum of water, set the dough back in the fridge
for perhaps 30 minutes before rolling. After rolling, get the pie dish back
in the fridge with the crust in it before filling. With a 2-crust pie, the
procedure is: Divide dough into 2 portions. Refrigerate both. After 20-30
minutes, roll out the bottom crust. Ease it into the pie dish. Fill with
the *cold* filling. (Never put a pie filling into a crust while it's warm)
Put it back in the fridge. Now take out the other dough ball and roll out
the top crust. Then pull the pie dish out and ease the top crust over the
bottom, crimping them together. Refrigerate again for about 10 minutes.
Then bake.

Then you have the question of ratios. To some extent that depends on the
fat type. It's also better to weigh rather than measure by volume. Butter
needs the highest ratio - for 1 lb of butter you'd want 18 oz (about 4
cups) of flour. Lard and vegetable shortening require less - for 1 lb of
lard you would want about 24 oz (about 5 cups) flour. Suet requires even
less - for 1 lb suet you would probably use about 30 oz (about 6 1/2 cups)
flour. Amount of water depends mostly on amount of flour. For 24 oz flour
you might typically end up using about 4-5 oz (1/2 - 5/8 cup) water. All
these ratios are approximate, especially the water amount. Generally what
you do is add water until the point I described above. Amount of fat is
closer to a fixed amount but there's plenty of "play" and you can add more
fat for a richer crust or less if you want a leaner and easier-to-work-with
crust.

Finally, on gadgets and equipment. A marble rolling board is nice and helps
keep the crust cool. Get a heavy wooden pin for best rolling results. You
want one with handles, not a handleless "French" pin. Good large stainless
steel or ceramic bowls will ease the mixing process. You don't want plastic
because the cutting action generally gouges the plastic. The bowls should
be deep rather than shallow and with steep sides. That will prevent stuff
from going everywhere. Virtually everything motorised is a big waste. Most
powered equipment overmixes at every point and besides, this is something
you'll learn to judge mostly by feel. And that "feel" is mostly :
ridiculously under-done.

--
Alex Rast
[email hidden]
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

You are right I think the visual instruction really helps. I too make
bread and am a fairly good intuitive cook. But those pie crusts....
golley! Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for the encouragement and the advice! I was beginning to feel
like a bit like a misfit. I found the directional description for
rolling the dough very helpful. It was one of my many questions. Of
course the fact that the pie mat I was using, had a heck of a curl to
it did not help. I had floor and dough going all over the
place...anyway.
Thank you again.