I love pie… and its an indulgence for me. All of that flour, extra carbs, wrapped up in layers of butter — and we haven’t even got to the sugar in the filling.
Sourdough is the answer. I figured out a way to make pie crust with sourdough.
Why is that such a breakthrough? Sourdough is “fermented,” and contains Lactobacillus culture, which increases lactic acid, which breaks down phytates. (Read more about why you want that to happen in your bread here). The soudough pre-digests the starches in the grain, and the longer rising times breaks the protein gluten down to make it more digestible. More importantly, a study showed that after eating sourdough, blood glucose levels were lower after eating sourdough white bread compared to whole wheat, whole wheat with barley and plain white bread.
Wow! Bring on the pie! Please!
Plus, using sourdough to make pie crust is great way to use up the “leftovers” when you’re feeding your sourdough starter. Lately, every time I feed my sourdough starter, I’ve been whipping up a batch of this pie dough. I now have a stash of pie crust dough for 4 pies in my freezer — just waiting for the black raspberries to ripen. This helps me sleep better at night.
Even better, use your food processor to make the dough — less mess.
To make this sourdough pie crust, this will make 2 pie shells, simply add 2 cups of flour and a tablespoon of salt to your food processor.
Process the flour and salt together before adding a cold stick of sliced butter.
Process the butter and flour mixture until you get pea-sized balls.
Next, add one cup of sourdough starter, and process just enough for the dough to form a ball.
Stop, and move the dough into a plastic ziplock bag, where you can knead it, right in the bag. Not too rough — just enough to get the butter to incorporate.
Let the bag sit at room temperature for about 12 to 24 hours, giving a chance to break down the gluten, the phytase, and build up Lactobacillus.
Before rolling out your sourdough pie dough, refrigerate your dough. (Or you can pop it in the freezer to store it for another day.)
I’ve been wanting to try this so am glad to have found your site. Thank you.
and such great and easy proportions! (of course, the liquidity/ dryness of the starter would effect things– what do you have in mind for this?)
Annie, I am using a 100% hydration. I have made four batches so far, and the dough seems quite forgiving (probably because of the butter) in terms of wetness and dryness in the air.
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