Fried Chicken and Pies
The easy way to make fried chicken is to fry it for about 10 minutes to get it good and crisp and then finish it in a very hot oven (450 to 500 degrees)for about 15 to 20 minutes. This way, you don't have to worry about getting the chicken done all the way through without burning and the heat drains out the excess grease. You can just do the chicken in the oven in the first place (use your usual recipe and then spray olive oil or corn oil on it). That's what we usually do. But for a special treat, deep fry first, then use the hot oven. I got this idea from a fantasy fan-dom cook book of all places, but it turns out to be my mother-in-law's Texas family special as well.
For pies, its very important to keep the water for the crust cold (ice water works best) and my mother's recipe has you blend the water into 1/3 of the flour and then blend it into the flour/shortening mixture. Also, handling it as little as possible (use a fork, then just dig your hands in fast to mix it quickly). Chilling dough in the fridge for an hour can also help. As can NOT making the pie when you are dead tired from apple or cherry picking (learned that one last apple harvest).
Another trick is to oil wax paper and roll your crust between two pieces of it. It doesn't always work (sometimes it sticks together) but when it does, its a lot easier. I haven't tried pastry cloths yet, but I intend to make some this summer and experiment. Like everything else, it gets easier with practice. My first homemade crust was such a disaster (I was in college and we had mess on the rented carpet, the table, even the ceiling!) that I waited 10 years to try it again. I'm only now getting really comfortable with it. Oh, and if you can't get good shortening (we can't here, the European stuff is different) you can use lard in most recipes. Butter is less successful, unless you have recipe that calls for it.
Something else I didn't know (until I got Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living) was that if you have much liquid at all in your pie, its a good idea to partially cook the bottom crust. I'd made a lot of horrible messes until I found this out. Fresh picked fruit is often more juicy than store bought stuff and can just soak a bottom crust right out of existence. So put some wax paper over the bottom crust, pour a few beans on it and cook it for about 20 minutes on 425 to 450 degrees. If your in a hurry, you don't even have to wait for it to cool. Just poor in filling, add top crust and finish cooking pie at about 350 for 40 minutes.
Finally, I've found it easier to make two medium sized pies than to make one huge one. Huge pies are very hard to judge cooking times on. If I only have one pan, I do a cobbler with top crust only. That way it doesn't really matter what it looks like, just so it all cooks through.
Hope this helps,
Melodi
PS - Carla's book also has excellent advice about how much sugar to add to different kinds of fresh fruit. Saved my blackberry pies last season
