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Pie Crust

Pie Crust although not a traditional Medieval recipe, this is probably as close as you can get to the taste and texture of a Medieval pie crust or pastry as you can with modern flours. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Medieval version of: Pie Crust or Pastry.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

20 minutes

Total Time:

40 minutes

Serves:

8–10

Rating:

Tags : British RecipesEnglish Recipes

Pie-crust Recipes

A wheat-based pie-crust is an essential of many European recipes. There are many modern recipes for pie bases and pie tops. However, these all rely on refined modern flour and many use margarine as the oil-based binding agent. In all likelihood Medieval flour would have been much coarser that even the coarsest modern flours and butter would have been used as a binding agent. The following recipe represents a compromise between the likely Medieval original and that which is palatable to modern tastes. Also note that edible pie crusts did not really start to appear until mid way through the 13th century which is when modern-style pies were invented. Earlier recipes used pastry as a throw-away casing for protecting the food.

Ingredients:

175g plain flour
60g coarse whole wheat flour
75g unsalted butter (salted butter will also work, but do not add extra salt)
¼ tsp salt
twist of black pepper
2½ tsp water

Method:

Take the butter from the fridge, cut into small cubes and leave on the side for at least half an hour to warm up. Meanwhile mix the flour together in a large bowl and add in the salt and pepper. When the butter has softened add this to the flour mixture and either cut into the butter with two knives. Alternatively use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour (this gives far better results) and keep rubbing until the texture resembles that of breadcrumbs.

Add the water a little at the time until the mixture binds together but is not too tough. This pastry dough should be good enough to roll immediately and is enough for one 22cm (9") pie. (If, however, the pastry is a little tough to roll out cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge for about half an hour).

In Medieval times a thick pie crust of water and flour was also made, which can be used for recipes that do not specify a specific kind of pie-crust (or if the crust was not to be eaten and was to be thrown away). This, however, is much tougher and thicker than a standard pastry crust and was not, generally, intended to be edible.