November, my birth month, brings pie season, and my sister Selina surprised me with a pie-making class at Central Milling Flour Company in Petaluma, CA. Chef David Groff taught the 5-hour class, and it inspired me to share the experience here.
We dove into creating pâte brisée, a foundational dough for flaky crusts that works perfectly for pies, quiches, empanadas, and more. Adding sugar transforms it into the base for sweet pies. I’ve struggled with consistent crusts — they’d shrink, slip, or tear. Chef Groff’s dough-making station turned out to be the perfect practice ground, and after a few rounds, I mastered a swift 5-minute dough prep! The trick? Minimal handling, a cold mix, and speed to avoid overworking. See recipe below.
In class, we tackled five savory pies inspired by British and Irish traditions, originally peasant fare meant for portable meals in fields and mines. Our creations began with velouté, one of the five “mother sauces,” as a filling base. We made a curried chicken pot pie, a beef-and-stout pie with mashed potatoes (a twist on cottage pie), a dense herdsman pie with chicken and pork, a vegetarian mushroom pie, and a traditional Friday fish pie.
Our class of ten passionate home chefs jumped into action. Each duo tackled a recipe, but since our beef-and-stout filling had been pre-cooked for richer flavor marinated overnight, my team got to help others, getting hands-on with every dish.
The results? Fun-nomenal! We feasted on four of the pies in the teaching kitchen, where I felt like I was on The Great British Bake Off, accompanied by salads and cookies made by Program Director Nicole Plue, a James Beard Award winner. We took home mini pies, leftovers, and extra pie dough, filling our bellies and hearts.
After the class, pies became our mainstay for a few days! But with Thanksgiving around the corner, we’re happily pacing ourselves for another round soon.
Pâte brisée (from David Groff, Central Milling Artisan Baking Center)
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
6 tablespoons ice water
Combine the flour and salt in a bowl or a food processor and pulse. Add butter and pulse until pea-sized pieces remain. Sprinkle the ice water over the flour mixture, then process just until the mixture comes together.
Dump dough onto plastic wrap and press into a flat disk. Chill for at least 30 minutes, or up to 1 day. Freeze (well wrapped) up to one month.
To roll the dough, place the disk on a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a circle approximately 2 inches larger than your pie or tart pan – about ⅛ inch thick. Gently roll the dough over the pin to transfer it to the pan, carefully pressing it into the edges and folding over the edges as needed to fit the pan. Chill.
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Blind-baked tart shell: Preheat oven to 400°F. Line the tart shell with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake until the crust starts to look dry, about 15 minutes.
Remove the foil and weights and continue baking until cooked through and golden brown, about 5 minutes.
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