Useful Tools: Pastry Roller

Useful Tools: Pastry Roller

Use this to assist you with fitting crusts into pie and tart pans.

It is never easy to get a pie crust "just right," and I wouldn't blame you for buying a pre-made one at the grocery store. But if you have your heart set on making your own pie or tart crust, then it is nice to have one of these things handy when one end comes up a little short.

I have used it many times when making tarts, especially. For some reason the dough never wants to cooperate, and I end up with a tear somewhere, and I'm afraid to move the dough back out of the pan to try to make repairs. Enter my good friend the pastry roller...

Crust is a little shabby-looking, and not fitting right...

Use pastry roller to gently extend crust to sides where it is low...

Use your tart press/tamper to mold the crust to the fluted sides of the pan...

Add pie weights and pre-bake the crust before adding filling...

Baked crust is ready for filling...

I added my smoked salmon dip (with a few adjustments) to the crust and baked an additional 10 minutes to melt the cheese...


This was a last-minute idea, and unfortunately, I packed it up and took it to our friends' house before I got a photo of the finished product. Took my camera with me, too, but it didn't work well sitting in my purse the whole time (i.e. I still forgot to take pics!). Sorry. :(

The smoked salmon spread changes were: 1/2 a package of cream cheese (it's all I had in the fridge); add 1/4 c. milk; add about 1 cup of shredded munster cheese. There was also just a tiny bit of sharp cheddar left in the fridge that I shredded into the salmon mixture, too. It turned out phenomenal.


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