Attempting homemade pie for Thanksgiving? Look here for helpful hints

Photo from YumSugar

As you can tell from this photo, my pumpkin pie may not look perfect but it shows that it was made with love. Love is, by the way, the most important ingredient in baking. Your pastries, pies, breads, cookies and cakes will always turn out better if you make them with a smile on your face. As for this holiday season, if you are inspired to make your own pie(s), check out some helpful tips as you embark on this adventure into what may be uncharted territory. Click here to see a step-by-step guide to making the perfect pie crust as captured a few years back by YumSugar at my Williams-Sonoma demo.

I think it's important to note that when I make pies at home, I don't use shortening. For the purpose this demo I used Spectrum brand non-hydrogenated shortening which has zero trans fat so you can maybe feel a little bit better about consuming the flaky crust at the end of your holiday meal. Here's a simple all butter pie crust recipe that my cooking instructor & chef friend Jodi Liano recently wrote about on her outstanding Food Wednesday blog. Happy Thanksgiving!

Crust recipe:
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for surface
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Special equipment: Use a 9"–9 1/2"-diameter glass or metal pie dish. You will need pie weights or dried beans to bake the crust.
To make crust:

Pulse 1 1/4 cups flour, butter, and salt in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-size pieces remaining. Drizzle 3 tablespoons ice water over mixture. Pulse until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if mixture is dry. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 4 equal pieces. Working with 1 piece at a time, use the heel of your hand to smear each portion of dough twice in a forward motion to distribute butter. Gather all 4 dough pieces into a ball. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill dough until firm, at least 1 hour. DO AHEAD: Dough can be made up to 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a 13" round. Transfer to pie dish, gently pressing dough onto bottom and up sides of dish. Fold overhang under and crimp edges decoratively. Pierce bottom of crust in several places with a fork, then chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
Line a large baking sheet with foil and place on a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°F. Line crust with parchment paper or foil and fill with pie weights. Bake until crust is set, about 20 minutes. Carefully remove parchment and pie weights. Bake until crust is pale golden, about 12 minutes longer. Transfer crust to a wire rack; let cool.

Recipe from Bon Appetit, 7/11