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Forgive this long comment! I'm hoping it will be helpful. My daughter and I made three savory pies yesterday (we made beef pies, like a Cornish pasty--finely diced beef, grated potatoes and onions). Both my daughter and I make very good pie crusts--I have 50 years of experience--but we are often frustrated at the inconsistencies and the problem of just the right moisture to flour ratio to have dough that rolls out easily, is thick enough to work with and make nice fluted edges, and is both tender and flaky.

We followed this recipe and were thrilled with the results. Our "test kitchen" experiments in the process might be useful for responding to a couple of the comments here. 1.) Use very cold, unsalted butter as in the recipe. If you use salted butter for a pie crust, plus the recommended salt (or even reduced amounts or no salt) it will be too salty tasting for many people. 2.) We tried the full amount of sugar and also reducing the sugar. Even for a savory pie, we liked the full amount of sugar best. 3.) We used the full amount of water/vodka and also reduced amounts, to experiment. Yes, it looks sticky with the full amount, but remember that some of that moisture will go away in baking (that is the function of the alcohol.), so the extra is needed to have a moist,flaky crust, not a less moist, crumbling one. The extra moisture also allows for the use of extra flour in rolling, which is very handy. 4.) Chill this dough for several hours and work fast with it. The high fat content dough benefits from being very firm when you're starting to work. Otherwise you'll have a very soft dough that rolls out nicely but is difficult to pick up and place on the pie tin. (That is one advantage of a pastry cloth. You can pick the whole thing up and put it in the fridge for a moment to chill and firm, then go back to work on it.) This dough can be re-rolled easily without toughening, but still, work lightly. Use plenty of flour to keep it workable--we found it didn't dry the dough out or toughen it, as can happen with regular crusts. (The alcohol again) 5. This recipe gave us plenty of dough for easy rolling to the right size and with more than enough for a pretty fluted edge--no need for patching and no skimpy edges that need foil protection to keep them from browning too much. We chilled them about an hour before baking so the edges would keep their shape.

Taste test: All the pies were wonderful but the one made exactly according to the recipe--exactly--was voted the best by the taste-testers who didn't know how we had made them. Not much difference in any of them, but still, the exact recipe--full amount of liquid and sugar--was considered the most flaky, tender and flavorful. As a side note: Using a food processor made this very, very easy (We also followed the number of pulses as given in the recipe). But, it can be made without a processor if the same cutting and distributing motion is used to combine flour and fat. Baking at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours cooked the meat and potato filling perfectly and produced a uniformly beautiful, golden brown and delicious tasting crust.

Try this recipe for your next pie and make it exactly according to the recipe, without fear. You can do it differently the next time if you want, but the first time, trust the recipe--developed by people with tremendous knowledge and skill and with a scientific not gimmicky reason for their suggestions--and I think you'll be very happy with the results.

i just made these over the weekend. SO DELICIOUS! i made two changes: (1) no plastic wrap and (2) i used 3 oz ramekins. they turned out great - although i had some trouble recognizing that they were done!

@ carolyn - i think maybe the milk/cream cooks down some while on the stove. that is how i interpreted what was going on with that extra cup of cream - use it only if you need it. i did not.

i would definitely make this again. i paired it with another recipe from this site: "sicilian pistachio bars". those were also awesome. i cut the bars into long strips and placed them across the top of the ramekins.

i use hometown favorites to get my Orange and Grape Crush sodas and cinnamon-pecan oatmeal. They are very reliable. One time I received a short order and the packing was a bit sticky, as if a bottle had leaked, and they replaced it immediately with a free six pack, no questions asked. hometownfavorites.com

Here is my simple, but sure-fire, personal recipe for you:

Chicken Soup w/Matzo Balls
Prep plus cooking time: 1–1/2 hours
8 servings

1 cup matzo meal
4 large eggs
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
table salt & ground pepper
seltzer water or club soda
4 tbsp. light olive oil
1 lb. ground chicken
1–1/2 lbs. skinless boneless chicken thighs and/or breasts
3 qts. pre-packaged chicken broth (I use Swanson Natural Goodness)
3 medium carrots, sliced into 1/4" rounds
3 medium stalks celery, large dice
1 large onion, large dice
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
1/2 lb. thin egg noodles, pre-cooked al denté

Equipment
Two large stockpots
Fine mesh strainer

Method
Melt the butter in the microwave in a pyrex cup (1 min). Cool slightly. Lightly beat the eggs in a shallow bowl. Add the butter and 4 tbsp. seltzer water and mix. Stir in a 1/8 tsp. ground pepper, 2 tsp. table salt, and the matzo meal until well mixed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 15 min.
Bring a large stockpot of water to a rapid boil. Form matzo mixture into golf ball-sized balls, and drop into boiling water. Cover pot and boil for 45 min. Transfer cooked matzo balls to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and reserve.

In the second pot, heat 2 tbsp. oil, then sauté the ground chicken until no longer pink. Add the chicken broth. Cook on a low simmer for 30 min. Skim excess fat from the top.

Wash and dry the first pot. Cut the chicken into bite–sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Add 2 tbsp. oil to the pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces and sauté 3 min. Add the onion, garlic clove, carrots, and celery, and sauté until the onions are translucent (8 min).

Strain the stock from the broth pot, discard all the ground chicken, and add the liquid into the pot with the chicken and veggies. Continue cooking on simmer until the chicken pieces are cooked through, and the carrots and celery are al denté (10 min). Taste and add salt as necessary. Add in the dill, matzo balls, and noodles, and heat through just before serving.

I come from Korea.. It's awesome there, but I CAN'T believe somebody put PASTA in a WAFFLE CONE. That's just dang hillarious.

@Tommasino: if American pasta can't be called pasta because we put too much sauce on it, then our pizza can't be called pizza, either. Our pizza in no way looks like what is served in Italy. Much different than how our pasta compares.

cjavel, that worked! Baking it per your instructions above resulted in a perfect golden brown crust. Thank you very much!

Thanks, cjavel. I'll try that. Another thing that probably affected my results was I did not chill the dough prior to baking. I think if it's at room temperature it probably turns darker much sooner, as well as not being as flaky as it could've been had I put in the oven cold.

dkim68: The July/August 2008 issue of CI is for blueberry pie and bakes it for the first 30 minutes at 400, then decreases the temp to 350 for the remaining 30-40 minutes. I made it last fall and the crust didn't get too dark. But usually I just make it to bake plain with sugar & cinamon, it's that fantastic!!!!!!

WHERE can I get the recipe for this?????

I live in California so I'm fortunate enough to be able to purchase raw milk. I, as well as my 11 year old son, have never had an issue. Both my son & I prefer the raw milk because it tastes fantastic. I don't know if it cures diseases but I do know this...When I drink pasteurized milk I get an headache & become congested within an hour of consuming it. When I drink raw milk I have zero issues so I am certain that there is something to this. The only issue I've had w/ the raw milk is that there are two brand-one of the brand's milk comes in a glass bottle, the other in plastic....the glass bottle raw milk tastes better & keeps longer than the brand in the plastic container. My son & I will continue drinking raw milk.

I agree with Foodboy and Growler - Glasers beats Greenbergs in taste AND price! I think that their black and whites are number 1 and their brownies with nuts are out of this world.

Check them out - they are definitely worth the trip. We used to live just a few blocks away on the UES and it wreaked havoc on my diet.