Thursday, May 26, 2016

Scenes from the Garden


Along with all the other fun in life, working in the garden has taken up time and has been a joy these past few weeks. We ate the first decent sized zucchini today (had a tiny one grilled last week...just a baby) and it was so good.


The new garden next to the steps up to the front door and deck is looking really great! The morning glories produce varied colors to welcome each day, the bright orange nasturtium flowers look wonderful next to the brilliant blue of the lobelia.


 In the main garden, near the barn, the peas and beans are up, along with tiny basil and nasturtium seedlings.


Sweet peas should be blooming soon and so should some lovely poppies. The transplanted lemon tree, rose and daphne shrubs are doing well and sending out new leaves. Here is the daphne, along with a beautiful pink geranium and bocopa.


 I think I'm going to have a bumper crop of pumpkins with seedlings that have sprung up from the pumpkins I put in the spent beds to compost. Should be fun to see what they turn out to look like! It's a treat each day to see the growth that spring brings! Look at how much they have grown since May 5th. I just thinned them out a bit, so they should really grow now. They share the barrel with seedlings for morning glories and zinnia.


 One of the biggest changes has been to the main planter near the walk
.

 Here is a wide view of what I see from the kitchen window.


Saturday, May 21, 2016

Aunt Leah's Raspberry Squares


The Cake Slice Bakers are still baking from Maida Heatter's Cakes and this is another keeper recipe. Our choices this month included a tunnel-of-fudge cake called Big Daddy's Cake, a chocolate sponge cake rolled around a whipped cream filling, a light honey infused Marmalade Gingerbread and this wonderful raspberry recipe. It was hard to choose and I dithered (to use Sweetie's phrase) from Big Daddy to Gingerbread to Raspberry Squares. The cake roll was out because I couldn't figure out a way to do it without dairy and still keep to the spirit of the recipe.

I finally chose this recipe because I love Raspberries and I was curious to see if the yeast made any difference in the recipe. Any recipe with so much fat severely reduces the ability of the yeasts to thrive. As it turned out the yeast made it just a nice bit puffier than a regular pastry and added just the right amount of yeast flavor to enhance the buttery pastry flavor and to offset the sweetness of the raspberry filling.

As usual I made a few changes. The first one was involuntary. I was starting the dough and had proofed the yeast when I discovered that I had a tiny amount of flour in my canister and I needed sugar, too. My solution was to add 1/2 cup flour to the water and yeast and let that sit overnight in the fridge, covered. In the morning I went shopping, then made the dough using a food processor and well chilled margarine instead of butter. I used soy creamer, unflavored, instead of the milk. I let the dough sit, covered, on the counter at room temperature for about an hour, then put it into the fridge for 8 hours. In the evening I followed most of the rest of the recipe and baked it.

The only other change was the filling. Because I don't like raspberry seeds in a fine pastry like this, I sprang for the more expensive seedless jam. Because I had three limes but no lemons on hand, I grated lime zest over the bottom of the pastry, spread on the loosened jam, then, because I couldn't find my blanched almonds (one of the perils of baking at night when my brain is not as sharp as one might wish) I scattered 1/2 cup sliced almonds over the jam.

 I also reduced the number and spacing of pastry strips for the top layer...getting tired...but I made sure to keep a viable pattern of pastry.

The result was wonderful! Tender golden pastry encased the jam filling. The pastry is not sweet but it is delicious. Sweetie ate what was left raw and liked that, too. The jam is so sweet that I left off any confectioners' sugar decoration. A lovely dessert for a Friday evening! You should try it!


Aunt Leah's Raspberry Squares
from Maida Heatter's Cakes

1/4 cup barely warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter (I used dairy-free margarine)
1 egg
1/2 cup evaporated milk (I used unflavored soy creamer)
Confectioners' sugar for decor (I skipped this)

Filling
1 pound (1 1/2 cups) thick raspberry preserves
Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon (or use a lime as I did)
2 1/2 oz. (1/2 cup) blanched almonds, chopped into medium size pieces (or use sliced almonds as I did)

For the Pastry:
In a small bowl add the warm water and yeast. Stir with a fork. Set aside.

Mix the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. With a pastry blender cut in the butter until the particles are fine and the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Beat the egg and the milk just to mix, and add, along with the yeast, to the dry ingredients. Stir thoroughly to mix.

(The above steps from mixing the dry ingredients to mixing in the liquids and yeast, may all be done in a food processor as I did.)

Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover airtight, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil or butter a 10 x 15 x 1-inch jelly-roll pan. It should not be a non-stick pan.

Flour a work surface and rolling pin. Turn the dough out onto the work surface, form it into a ball, and cut it in half. Set aside one of the pieces. I put it back into the bowl.

Shape the other piece into a rectangle, flouring the dough, work surface and your hands/rolling pin as you go as necessary. Roll the dough out to measure 12 x 17 inches. keeping the corners as square as you can and the sides as straight as you can. Loosely drape the rolled out dough over the rolling pin and transfer it to the buttered jelly-roll pan. With a small, sharp knife, trim the sides of the dough even with the top of the pan.

Sprinkle the citrus zest over the dough in the pan. Loosen the raspberry preserves with a fork and then spread that over the dough. Go all the way to the all the edges. I used a small offset spatula and that really worked well. Sprinkle with the sliced almonds. Set aside.

Flour the remaining dough and work surface and rolling pin and form it into a rectangle, rolled out to 10 x 15 inches. No need to be as perfect about straight sides or corners with this one.

With a zigzag or plain pastry wheel or pizza cutter, slice this rolled out dough into lengthwise strips 1/2 inch wide. Place half the strips on a diagonal about 1/2-inch apart over the filling, pinching them off level with the rim of the pan. Place the rest of the strips crisscrossing in the opposite direction, forming a lattice or diamond design, pinching off the ends here, too.

With your fingers, fold over the dough around the edges. Fold it in toward the center to form a border about 1/2 inch wide all around. With a fork, press down on it lightly to seal.



Without waiting for the dough to rise, place the pan in the oven and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until nicely colored.

Cool in the pan.

With a sharp, small knife cut the cake into squares and transfer them to wax paper with a wide metal flexible spatula. Sprinkle confectioners' sugar through a fine strainer to decorate, if desired.

These may be frozen.


Monday, May 16, 2016

The Babes Bread of Spring


Things are sprouting and shooting up in the garden and around the property. Flowers are blooming and birds are singing. Spring. It's one of my favorite times of year. Our Kitchen of the Month, Cathy of Bread Experience has asked the Bread Baking Babes to make a spring flatbread/focaccia topped with thin lemon slices and our choice of herbs and spring greens. As you can see from the photo, it makes a very visually appealing dish.

The bread itself is fairly easy. I saved half the dough, in two pieces, in oiled ziploc bags in the fridge and baked them almost a week later. The flavor was even deeper than the original bread, so consider retarding your dough longer than the recipe indicates if you like a full flavored bread.

I made this lovely recipe over a week ago and the bread was just devoured when served! I picked some miner's lettuce, tiny dandelion greens and fresh herbs from my garden, then added super thin bits of asparagus, too. With the thin slices of Meyer lemon, it just sang Spring! A wonderful May recipe! 

For the refrigerated dough I made half with fresh rosemary, sea salt and olive oil on top and the other with those and a sprinkle of mixed seeds. I think I liked the simplest one the best, although the lemon slices really added to the bread, so it would be hard to choose. I'll be making this again!

Choose to make this bread and become a Buddy. Let us know how you topped yours and how it was making the bread, then send that along with a photo to Cathy. Check her blog, Bread Experience  for more details. Get it to her by May 29th to be included in the roundup.  If you do not have a blog, no problem; you can also post your picture(s) to Flickr (or any other photo sharing site) and record your thoughts about the bread there. Please remember to email Cathy at Bread Experience to say that your post is up.


Be sure to check out what the other Babes have done this month, too.
The active Bread Baking Babes are:


Thin Crispy Spring Focaccia
Adapted from: The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking by The French Culinary Institute
Makes: Four ~400-gram Focaccias

Poolish:
40 grams (100 %) Bread Flour
44 grams (125%) water, room temperature
1/8 teaspoon/ 4 grams (10%) instant yeast

Final Dough
668 grams (80%) Bread Flour
167 grams (20%) whole wheat, or bread flour
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
625 grams (75%) - 725 grams (87%) water *
84 grams (All) Poolish
17 grams Olive Oil
25 grams water (3%), to mix with the salt
17 grams Coarse Sea Salt

Topping Suggestions:
Olive Oil
Coarse Sea Salt, for sprinkling if desired
Fennel Seeds, to taste
Dried Thyme, to taste
Lemon slices, thinly sliced
Spring Mix Greens, or other greens as desired
Alfalfa Sprouts
Tiny blanched asparagus
Fresh rosemary

Poolish:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the bread flour and yeast. Pour in the room temperature water and combine using a wooden spoon. Scrape down the sides of the bowl using a spatula or dough scraper. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter at room temperature (75 degrees F. /25 degrees C.) for 12 to 14 hours.

Final Dough:
The next day, or when ready to mix the final dough, whisk together the flours and yeast in a large bowl. Pour the water and oil over the poolish and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk to break up the poolish. Add the water gradually, reserving the 25 grams to mix with the salt.  I started with about 650 grams (78%), then gradually added more water until the dough reached the consistency I was looking for 725 grams (87%).  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a dough scraper, cover and let it rest (autolyze) for 20 minutes.

Uncover and sprinkle the salt over the top of the dough. Pour the remaining 25 grams of water over the salt to dissolve it.  Using wet hands, thoroughly incorporate the salt into the dough. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle water on a work surface. Uncover the dough and transfer it to the wet surface. Using wet hands, fold the dough from all sides.  Then gently tuck the seams under and place the dough back in the bowl.  Using water on the counter and your hands, alleviates the need to oil the bowl or the work surface. Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set the dough aside for the third time to ferment for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle water on the work surface again and fold the dough one last time. Tuck the seams under and place it back in the bowl. Cover and set it aside to ferment for 2 hours. (I let mine ferment overnight in the fridge.)

An hour before you plan to bake the focaccia, place a baking stone or tiles in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees F. (260 degrees C.) If you plan to use a pan for steam, place it in the oven at this time.

Sprinkle your work surface with water. Transfer the dough to the work surface and divide it into four equal pieces. Depending on the type of flour you use and the hydration, each piece will be approximately 400 grams.  Mine were about 410 grams each. Shape each piece into a round and cover with plastic. Let them bench rest for 15 minutes.

At this point, I wrapped two of the dough balls in oiled plastic, placed them in a plastic bag and put them in the refrigerator to use another day. Feel free to make them all at once if you prefer.

Lightly oil two half sheets of parchment paper. Place one dough ball on each sheet. Gently press on the dough to degas it and then shape each piece into a flattish round.  Cover the rounds with plastic wrap and let them proof for 45 minutes.

Uncover the dough, drizzle olive oil over the top and gently stretch each piece into an oval disk the length of the parchment paper, or to the desired size.  Sprinkle the top with fennel seeds, thyme and sea salt (optional) and place thinly sliced lemons, as desired.   

Using a baker’s peel or unrimmed baking sheet, transfer the focaccia (on the parchment) to the preheated baking stone.  If using steam, add ice cubes to the steam pan.  I used my new baking steel with no added steam.  

Bake the focaccia for 10 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown and crisp around the edges. Remove the parchment paper partway through baking to allow the bottom to firm up.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Add a handful of the spring mix greens and sprouted alfalfa and tear apart pieces or slice it if you prefer. 

Repeat with the remaining focaccias.

I recommend using lots of lemon slices, sliced very thin...it makes the bread special! Use the toppings of your choice.


Sunday, May 15, 2016

Raspberry Overnight Waffles


As long as your waffle iron works (and that you actually have a waffle iron), there is nothing as wonderfully crisp and delicious in the waffle world as Overnight Waffles. Thank you Mollie Katzen! The batter is started the night before and in the morning you add melted butter and eggs and are ready to go in no time. Because these are yeast waffles, the steam that emanates from the waffle iron as they bake smells just like freshly baked bread. In my house that means that the waffles just can't bake fast enough. On a recent morning, the waffle iron seemed to be having trouble getting up to baking temperature, so the wait seemed even more interminable.

For this venture into waffle land I decided to add fresh raspberries to the waffles before they baked. They were pretty large raspberries, so I sliced each one in half. The addition of those sweet red berries really was a great idea because they tasted wonderful, looked better than plain waffles and we had the addition of warm raspberry scent added to the warm bread fragrance. Lucious!

You can get creative and use another berry or diced fruit instead of the raspberries. Chopped nuts are also a nice addition. Topping with more berries is even better!

Be sure to have a well greased iron and one that gets as hot as possible since that makes for a lovely crispy waffle and golden crust. Serve right away with your favorite toppings. Berries, jam drizzle, yogurt and/or whipped cream. Maple syrup is classic but imagine these with an apricot syrup. If your mouth isn't watering by now, perhaps you should move on to another blog.


Amazing Overnight Waffles with Raspberries
adapted from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe' Cookbook

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups milk (I used a mixture of soy creamer and rice milk)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (I melted some non-dairy margarine)
1 large egg (or  ¼ cup egg substitute)
Nonstick spray
Butter for the waffle iron
1 cup fresh raspberries, rinsed, blotted with a towel, then carefully sliced in halves
Pure maple syrup – hard to resist on waffles

Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl Add the milk (or rice/soy milk mixture) and whisk until blended. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature (or put in the fridge if room temp. is over 70 degrees F.)

The next morning, preheat the waffle iron. Melt the 6 tablespoons butter (or non-dairy margarine) and let cool a bit. Beat the egg is a small bowl (unnecessary if using egg substitute) then beat it into the batter along with the melted butter. The batter may be a bit thin.

Lightly spray the hot waffle iron with non stick spray, top and bottom plates, and then butter a piece of bread and use that to rub some butter on top and bottom plates.

Add just enough batter to cover the cooking surface…this varies by waffle iron…about 2/3 cup. Scatter about 12-14 raspberry halves over the batter. Lower the top and cook until golden brown. That is usually when the bread fragranced steam almost stops coming from the waffle iron...it’s OK to check now and then. It takes about 2-3 minutes, but cook longer if you prefer. I like them golden brown, but not dark brown.

Serve hot, right away, with strawberries and maple syrup, or toppings of your choice.


Note; If you have too many waffles for the number of people you are feeding, bake the leftover batter a little less than the ones you are eating, let cool on a baking rack, then freeze and store in the freezer tightly wrapped. Re-heat in the toaster.

One of the things that often keeps me from making anything more complicated for breakfast than a bowl of oatmeal  or some fruit and toast is the time it takes to put together a batter (pancake, waffle, muffin, coffee cake) and then cook/bake it and then clean up from it.

The advantage of this waffle recipe is that you start the batter the night before and only need to add the egg and melted butter in the morning. Now, it's true, there is still some cleaning up to do (although half can be done the night before) and waffles do take a while to bake in the waffle iron, but the amazing ease of finishing off the batter, plus the fact that they taste great, makes it worthwhile. An added bonus is that the house smells like freshly baked bread...hard to beat on a chilly spring morning. Add some fresh raspberries and you have a decadent way to start the day.

The ingredients for this are so simple that most people will have them handy in the pantry. That makes it so easy to whisk the first part together one evening, cover it, let the little yeasties do their thing overnight, then finish it off and enjoy the next morning. These freeze well and can be easily reheated in a toaster or toaster oven...if any are left.

Saturday, May 07, 2016

Using Up Roasted Turkey


This should probably be a post for November, but the truth is that I love turkey and eat it year 'round. With the easy availability now of turkey parts at my local market, it's easy to pick up a pack of turkey thighs and cook them in the toaster oven until roasted. Since my toaster oven is located in my studio, away from the house, this works well when the temperature is in the upper 80s as it was earlier in the week.

Once the initial dinner of roast, sliced turkey, mashed potatoes and peas passed, I still had plenty of turkey to use and it was more easily cut into chunks than sliced. Perfect for putting into a pasta sauce. In the past I've made a cream based pasta sauce with herbs and mushrooms, so I decided to try that but to use rice milk and soy creamer instead of milk, creating my own recipe as I went along.

It worked really well and since I included fresh rosemary along with dried thyme and sage, plus a large amount of green garlic (a gift from a neighbor), it was pungent in fragrance as well as delightful in flavor. Because this kind of sauce can be a bit staid, even with all of those ingredients, I used two strips of local bacon for added depth of flavor. I cooked the bacon first and used the drippings (after removing the bacon itself) to saute the mushrooms, celery and green garlic.

This made a wonderful pasta sauce and went well with a fresh green salad embellished with orange segments, avocado and a balsamic dressing. Although I did use gluten free pasta, I used regular flour for the sauce. I've figured out that I need to keep my gluten down to a low level but don't have to eliminate it altogether. If you do, just substitute a GF flour mix in the sauce and cut back the milk by a couple of tablespoons. Then, once the liquid has thickened, add more if needed to make the sauce the consistency you like.


Turkey Mushroom Pasta Sauce with Green Garlic

2 strips of bacon, cut into roughly 1-inch pieces
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
1/2 cup finely chopped tender green garlic bulb (no roots or skin or tough parts)
(if green garlic not available, used 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, plus 2-3 minced garlic cloves)
2 cups diced (bite sized) cooked turkey
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 tespoon dried sage
1 tablespoon fresh, chopped rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rice milk or other non-dairy milk
2 tablespoons soy creamer, unsweetened and unflavored
salt and pepper to taste

In a large, heavy bottomed pot cook the bacon over medium-low heat until browned and fat rendered. Remove bacon from pot with a slotted spoon to a piece of paper towel to drain.

Increase heat to medium-high and add the celery. Stir to coat with oil. Cook, uncovered 1 minute, stirring as needed. Add the mushrooms, stir to combine with the celery, cover, and cook 3 minutes. Remove cover, stir well, cover and cook 1 more minute. Uncover, stir in the green garlic, cover, lower heat to medium-low and cook 2 minutes. Uncover and stir in the turkey, thyme, sage and rosemary. Cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from burning or sticking.

In a large measuring cup, whisk the milk into the flour slowly to avoid clumping. Uncover the pot, raise heat to medium, and pour the milk mixture in all at once. Immediately stir vigorously to combine all the ingredients in the pot with the milk mixture and continue stirring until the liquid thickens. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover, reduce heat to lowest setting and cook 1 minute to combine flavors. Uncover, add the soy creamer if needed to make the sauce the consistency you like.

Serve over cooked pasta or rice. Sprinkle each serving with chopped Italian parsley if desired.

Serves 4.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Garden At The Moment


I confess, I have not been spending much time being creative in the kitchen. I have made the May bread for the Bread Baking Babes, but that won't be posted until May 16th. There has been the usual cooking for dinners for the two of us, but that is almost always something easy, tried, and true...and already posted on this blog.

The reason for less time in the kitchen has been that I've been spending more time in the garden. When the usual time (in this area) for weeding and garden prep came around in February and March I wasn't feeling well and had no energy.


Fortunately for me Mother Nature decided to ignore the calendar and give us rain in April quite a few times. That loosened up the soil enough for me to do April weeding and some planting, too. Sweetie dug some holes for putting gopher baskets and plants into the ground..a rose bush, a Meyer lemon bush and a daphne bush.



Those pesky gophers are not to be trusted, so almost anything that goes into the ground has to be encased in a wire basket to discourage the gophers from munching on the roots or even the whole plant. I lost 10 rose bushes the first year we lived here since I didn't know better and planted the roses right in the ground. I think those creatures are still showing up every year hoping I'll be that foolish again!


With May underway the containers that keep the plants happy and out of the ground are being filled with potting soil and I've gotten a few seedlings planted and a number of seeds, too. Rain is expected sometime during the next three days, so everything will get a welcome soaking.

Last, but not least, I've hauled quite a few bags worth of mulch to spread and keep weeds at bay. Since my strength is still not full force, I usually scoop about a third of the bag into a smaller container, spread that, scoop the next third, spread that, then haul the bag itself to be tipped and spread. It takes longer, but works just as well as trying to tip the whole bag out all at once.

Most years I plant a lot of tomato and squash seeds into little cells in February and start them in our sunspace indoors. Now that I have to restrict my consumption of tomatoes, that seemed like a lot of work for no reason, so I only did some squash plants that way



and purchased two tomato seedlings so that Sweetie would have tomatoes for his salads. These are all planted and doing well. Next I'm going to address the plants (and weeds) closer to the house. Don't expect too many posts, OK? The garden siren song is calling again.


Monday, May 02, 2016

Custard Without Milk...In A Quiche


I enjoy making quiche and have made a few which have been posted on this blog, but now I decided that rather than forgo quiche due to the use of milk in the custard that I would try making it using soy creamer. Soy milk, or any rice or nut milk would probably work, but I like the thickness of Silk brand original (unflavored) soy creamer, so I went with that. I also used to put cheese in my quiches but still haven't found a non-dairy cheese worth bothering with, so this is a custard pie with ham, mushrooms and asparagus. It's different, but worth making.

It was well over 80 today when I was making this pie, so I decided to use my toaster oven, which is out in my studio. Since I wasn't going to be in there except to put the quiche in and out of the oven it didn't matter if it got heated up, but I didn't want to do that to my regular kitchen. The unfortunate thing is that since I wasn't there to check on it, the blind bake went on too long and so the final crust was pretty dark brown in a lot of spots...almost burnt.


Other than that, it was a lovely quiche. I lowered the heat for baking it after my experience with the crust and also baked it for a shorter time than the recipe called for. Since I had browned the mushrooms before I put them in the crust, they went on the bottom. Over that I put the blanched asparagus, then I scattered the diced ham on top. This is truly asparagus season around here, so it made a very seasonal and delicious dish. The custard was not quite as tender as one made with milk but we didn't miss the cheese with all that yummy ham, asparagus and mushroom flavors going on.



Quiche with Asparagus and Mushrooms and Ham

1 9-inch pie shell, blind baked at 425 degrees F for 10-12 minutes (recipe follows)
1½ cup sliced fresh mushrooms, sauteed for 5 minutes in an oil slicked frying pan, then set aside
1 cup blanched asparagus pieces
1 cup diced cooked ham
3 eggs (or equivalent egg substitute)
1 ½ cups soy creamer or evaporated milk or light cream
¼ teaspoon salt
dash pepper
Dash nutmeg
dash dried thyme

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sprinkle the bottom of the pie shell with the mushrooms, asparagus, and ham, distributing evenly. Set aside

In a bowl, beat the eggs lightly, then add the soy creamer and beat with a fork to combine, add the salt, pepper, nutmeg and thyme and beat with a fork to combine.

Pour the egg/milk mixture over the ingredients in the blind baked pie shell. Place in the preheated oven and bake 30-45 minutes, or until set and lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before cutting to serve.
Serves 6-8

Pastry Pie Shell

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chilled butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender, or two knives, until particles the size of dried peas are formed.

In a small bowl mix together the egg, ice water and lemon juice (if using). Sprinkle over the flour mixture and toss with a fork lightly. Do not over mix. Gather the particles together in a ball. Wrap airtight and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes. Roll out with a rolling pin on a floured surface until large enough to fill a 9 inch pie pan with some overlap.

Fit into a 9 inch pie pan, smooth to fit, trip excess, tuck edges under and crimp as for any pie crust. Prick lightly all over the surface with a fork. Freeze 10 minutes. Remove from freezer and cover with a circle of parchment paper. Fill the paper with beans or pie weights (blind baking the crust).
Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 – 12 minutes. Cool slightly. Remove and save the beans or pie weights. 

Fill the blind baked crust with filling as called for in recipes needing a pie shell. If the crust has browned too much, use a piece or two pieces of foil to create a shield for the part of the crust that is over browned after filling the crust.