I once read an anecdote about the famous sci-fi writer, Harlan Ellison, writing a short story in a cafe.  As he finished each page, he taped it up in the window for the world to see, which kept him from going back to change the story as he wrote; his first draft was his last.  Blogging is a little like that, if you squint and ignore the part about how it’s pretty easy to go back and change an earlier blog post if you want to.  You put up recipes you’re pretty sure are done, and that snapshot of that recipe is what everyone else gets to see … unless you find the time to go back and update or tweak it.  Personally, I haven’t done more than the tiniest edits to previous blog posts — not least because I find editing a much more obnoxious process than writing, and a little bit because it’s hard to talk myself into taking the time to work on old posts when there are so many new things to try, but mostly because I’m not too convinced anyone would ever notice significant changes to old posts anyway, which is probably why all my edits to date look and sound like they were made at gunpoint (they basically were).

But, making new posts about significant updates to old recipes … that I could do.  🙂  And since my whole family’s starting in on the process for a really big move that’s shaping up to be a headache and a half, I think now’s a good time to do it.  So, here’s the plan:  Until this move is over, which probably won’t be until the end of January, and may well be longer, more likely than not instead of posting new recipes, I’ll be making “little” posts that either update recipes in old posts or add a significant amount of information that either didn’t fit in an old post, or just didn’t exist when I wrote the post in question.  For example, while my pasta recipe hasn’t changed, the way I make it has (in short — an awful lot less effort and an awful lot less misery), and I’d love to walk you through my routine for that sometime in the next few weeks.

So, long story short — little posts for a while!  Hope you enjoy them anyway!  And first up — pie crust!  🙂

When it comes to how the dough behaves, this pie crust is essentially the same as the original version, but it’s simpler and easier to make, and doesn’t have gluten substitute in it, which means no nasty bitter taste to cover up.  You can also use a food processor to make the dough, which I’ll go through here.  (You could do that with the last version, too, if you prefer that; the instructions are the same in every way.)  But enough talk, and more pie crust.  🙂

Pie Crust, Updated

Yield:  1 9-inch pie crust

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dough mix
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/8 tsp guar gum
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold butter
• 1/3 cup ice water

Directions:

1.  Put the water in the freezer to chill.  You want it to be cold enough to form ice crystals in a skin over the entire surface of the water, but not so cold as to freeze completely.

2.  Once the water’s chilled, combine all other ingredients (dough mix, xanthan gum, guar gum, salt, and butter) in the bowl of the food processor, with either the normal blade or, if you have one, the dough blade.  Process the mixture until fully combined, then add the cold water and process again.

3.  Use a floppy spatula to scoop the resulting soggy dough out of the food processor bowl and wrap it up in some plastic wrap.  Put the dough in the fridge to chill for at least four hours, or until it firms up.

4.  Roll out and bake the crust exactly as described in the original post.  If you use plenty of dough mix and are attentive to how sticky the dough is, you don’t always have to use a layer of wax paper over the dough, but you always want one under the dough.