Pie School

By Kate Lebo

Staff Favorite - Áine's Choice

Lessons in Fruit, Flour & Butter

When people find out I worked as a pastry chef, one of the most common questions I get asked is "okay, but how do you make a good pie crust?" Instead of going into a twenty minute spiel on my favorite butter brands, the right kind of salt to use, and why I loathe it when people are told to grate frozen butter into the flour (you're making the butter chunks too small), I just recommend this book. Easier, and just as useful. I had a copy of the original 2014 edition that I lent out and never got back, mostly because I forgot who I let borrow it, but that gave me an excuse to buy the newly revised edition that came out in 2022. The new edition is just as delightful, with the addition of about twenty new recipes, including one that calls for the native, delightful, and under-utilized huckleberry, and an entire chapter on savory pies.