March KTC Event: Pastry dough with Frank and Fernando!

Hey, party people! It’s finally time to write about our March KTC event: Pastry doughs with Fernando and Frank. Please think “WWJD?”—that’s “What would Julia do?” for the uninitiated—and forgive the delay. Instead, smile, and read on!

 We met at Frank and Damian’s place on a Sunday afternoon. It was our lucky day—Damian’s cutie-pie mom would join us! She received us with a wide smile and seemed simply delighted to hang out for the evening with a house full of young’uns. Isn’t she sweet?

We had some wine and some snacks…

Joyce and Jessica posed (Joyce modeling a new jacket find, thanks to Anne!):

We were having a nice time, and didn’t realize that the volume must have begun to creep up—this guy kept nosing around at the window trying to see what all the fuss was about:

We poked fun of the kitty’s first-position feet, too.

Now that everyone had arrived, we assembled our collection of rolling pins…

Then we decided to get all artsy with them…

From there, it looks as if we moved into interpretive dance. Or something. I don’t remember exactly what we were trying to accomplish with this shot—only that it seemed really hysterical while we put it together. Now, though, several weeks later, it just looks a little disturbing.

Finally, we all moved into the kitchen…

Anne and Meg got cozy…

Here, Frank models our beurre du jour, unsalted Plugrá. Did you know Plugrá “European-style” butter is actually manufactured in the U.S. by Dairy Farmers of America giant, Keller’s Creamery? The butter’s name, "Plugrá," is derived from the French plus gras ("more fat"). Thanks, Wikipedia!.

William kicked us off with a short discourse about dough: how the ingredients work together, general do’s and don’ts, and our experience working with doughs.

The evening’s project would be this (Click on the image for a complete version whose text you can copy and print):

We were encouraged to experiment, and the options seemed endless. Food processor, pastry blender, or hand-mix? Lard vs. butter? Or half-lard, half-butter? Sugar or no sugar? Acid or no acid? If so, lemon or vinegar? Heavy cream vs. buttermilk vs. sweet milk? Herbs?

 

 

 

 

We mixed up our various combinations of doughs, and left them to chill in the fridge. Next steps: Rolling out our doughs to make crusts—both for a meat pie-type entrée and for individual crusts for our extra-cute (and useful! I’ve already re-used mine several times since then!) pie jars. Here, Meg demonstrates rolling technique with a tapered French rolling pin.

We dusted the counter generously with flour and cut off a little chunk of herbed dough to get started. So cute!

Within seconds, we’d rolled out a buttery circle of yum.

From there, we had a veritable pastry-pressing party. We took turns rolling, and noted differences between the different dough textures, temperatures, and elasticity.

Rick enjoyed this process, as evidenced by the tell-tale (grope?) marks on his shirt.

We needed a b-i-g piece of dough to serve as a top crust to cover this incredible looking beef stew-type mixture—doesn’t it look like pure comfort personified in a Pyrex?

 

So, William demonstrated a method for transporting large sheets of soft dough from one place to another:

We did pretty well, overall. There were a few crusts that looked iffy going into their respective receptacles:

But they all ended up looking super tasty! We used two fillings: one was loosely based on this recipe from What Katie Ate (apple, ginger, and blueberries). The other filling was actually the insides of this Shaker Lemon Pie by Smitten Kitchen.

Poor Damian was wiped out, and we giggled a teeny bit at his expense as he dozed on the sofa. Look how adoringly his mom gazes upon him!

We popped the pie jars into the oven to bake during dinner, and then mixed up a gorgeous, multi-colored salad…

Time to eat! What a cozy scene!

Looks tasty!

After no time at all, everyone’s plates looked like this:

Next was dessert. We fished out the pie jars from the oven, and served up ice cream (blackberry and vanilla, I think?). Everything was scrumptious!

 

 

And there you have it! Kitty says, “Bye, y’all!”