Car Solutions 4 U Blog

Tips For The Perfect Pie Crust

Apples, pumpkins and pears, oh my! Why is it so hard to make the perfect pie? Well, I’m

done with soggy crusts and burnt edges, so I’ve put together my top secrets for making the

perfect pie crust every time. Follow these tips and you’ll find baking this sweet treat easy

as…well, pie.

Keep Your Fat Cold—Whether you’re using butter, shortening or margarine, keep your

baking fat in the fridge until the second you are ready to use it.

Use Ice Water—Pie dough needs to stay cold throughout the forming process. Starting

with cold butter or fat is a start, but also use cold water. Fill a liquid measuring cup with ice

and water and let it chill out in the fridge for about 10 minutes before using it.

Don’t Over Knead—It might be tempting to knead pie dough until the butter is evenly

distributed. But with pie crust, it’s better to under-kneed than over-kneed. Work your

dough until there’s still pea-sized chunks of butter in it, then stop!

Chill The Dough Before Rolling—As I said before, pie dough needs to stay cold. For the

flakiest crust possible wrap your dough in saran wrap as soon as you’re finished kneading

it and then pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes before you begin rolling.

Rotate And Don’t Stress Over Cracks—Cold pie dough can be tricky to roll, but start by

flouring your work surface and rotating your dough 90 degrees after every other roll.

Slowly, you’ll form a perfect circle with minimal cracks on the edge. But don’t panic if you

have a lot of cracks, they just mean you’re rolling the dough at the right temperature and

you didn’t overwork it.

Give The Crust A Head Start—Some pies, especially liquid-based pies like custard or

pumpkin, require the crust to be partially baked before the filling is added. Make sure

you’re reading the directions and never skipping a partial bake on your recipe.

Always Add An Egg Wash And Sugar—For a crispy golden crust brush a light coating of

egg onto your pie dough right before baking. This will not only prevent it from burning but

if you also sprinkle sugar over the egg wash it’ll add a nice shine and tasty texture.

I hope these crust tips help you serve up the perfect pie every time!

I was making a sandwich the other day when I wondered, where did the idea for these tasty bread towers come from? And believe it or not August is actually National Sandwich month! So you better believe I found some fun sandwich facts to share with you:

• The name Sandwich comes from John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18^th century English aristocrat. He ordered meat tucked into two pieces of bread and others began to order, “the same as Sandwich.” Thus, the name was born.
• Americans eat more than 300 million sandwiches every day. This is amazing considering there’s only slightly more than 300 million Americans.
• The world’s largest sandwich weighed 5,440 pounds. Talk about a hearty dinner!
• The average American will have consumed 1,500 PB&Js by the time they’ve graduated high school. 
• The most expensive sandwich ever sold was a grilled cheese with an image of the Virgin Mary on it. It sold for $28,000.
• The most popular sandwich in America is a ham sandwich. Which makes sense, it’s one of my favorites too!
• Depending on where you live, an oblong shaped sandwich could go by one of many names including hero, hoagie, potbelly, grinder, sub, torpedo, blimpie, wedge and po' boy.

Man, all this talk about sandwiches has made me hungry—I think I’m going to go make myself one. 

There’s something about this summer heat that always makes me wanna grab a popsicle. But as much as I love buying popsicles from the ice-cream truck, sometimes I need my sweet treat fix before it comes around. If you like popsicle season as much as I do, but you’re also to impatient to wait for the ice-cream truck to come around, here’s everything you need to know about making your own gourmet popsicles.

First things first, if you’re going to make popsicles, you need to make sure you have molds. You can buy some from the store, but you can always use small plastic or paper cups in a pinch. Likewise, if you don’t have any popsicle sticks, plastic spoons are another good substitute.

Once you’ve got your molds figured out, it’s time to start working on your filling. When it comes to picking a flavor, there are no rules—you can be as creative and crazy as you wanna to be. For easy popsicles, you can start with whatever juice you have available. I even suggest mixing and matching juices, if you have more than one on hand.

Now if you really wanna spice things up, try adding unique texture elements to your popsicles like fruit or herbs, like mint or basil. You can really turn up the heat by adding spices, like cayenne to make a chipotle-inspired pop.

Don’t let the fun stop there. Instead of juice you can use creamier liquids, like yogurt, pudding or even coconut water. These bases will give you the opportunity to play around with sweeter flavors like chocolate, caramel and crunchie candies.

Once you’ve finished mixing up your concoction, pour it into the molds and pop it in the freezer for a couple hours. You’ll have a get totally personalized treat in no time. Enjoy your popsicles!