As Strunk and White somehow failed to say about newspaper articles, complimenting your mother-in-law in the first paragraph is not a good way to build credibility with readers, especially if you’re proposing something incredible. So I was suspicious when the Oregonian’s Danielle Centoni began her story on pie crusts by saying, “My mother-in-law, Cathy, is beloved for many reasons, not least of which is her apple pie.”
But as Centoni explains, she had her in-laws over for Thanksgiving recently and wandered into the kitchen to spy on her mother-in-law’s pie-making method:
I noticed she had the olive oil out.
‘What’s the oil for?’ I asked.
‘For the pie,’ she said.
I was confused.
‘Do you put it in the topping?’
‘No, the crust.’
Centoni’s bewildered. As she writes, “How could that possibly make flaky layers?” It turns out that the oil crust is adapted from a seriously old-school pie crust recipe from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook: Mix oil, flour, water; roll out. And as she points out, that only seems unusual in the context of our regimented pie-crust rule book: In Mediterranean cooking, olive oil is used frequently in doughs and crusts. Plus, there’s no saturated fat in olive-oil crusts, and there’s less total fat, period. That said, as cookbook author Flo Braker admits, there’s also, well, less flavor.
The story’s reminiscent of this New York Times profile (registration required) of a cook who uses liquid lard for crusts—although I’d figure that has no flavor problems whatsoever. Slashfood’s excited about the concept and tracks down this savory olive-oil pie crust that’s even made using a recipe from Colavita’s website. Who knew?
Yep, my 87 y.o. mother has been making that Better Homes & Garden pie crust recipe for decades. She always uses peanut oil for better flavor and flakier results than other vegetable oils.
That sound you just heard was the natural order of the universe being disturbed. Olive oil at breakfast, lunch and dinner? Yes. Olive oil ice cream? Yes. But in my pie crust? I can’t see doing it for a traditional apple pie — but I guess I’d give it a shot for something a little off-beat. And, actually, for a savory tart it sounds great.
I make pie crust using a mixture of butter and (unflavoured) olive oil – the butter for the flavour, the oil for the health benefits. It works pretty well. Not the World’s Best Crust(tm) but quite acceptable. I also use rice flour because of food sensitivities, so it’s never going to be yer standard crust anyway.