The Perfect Crust: The Legend Lives On

In an era of Cronuts, doughnuts, cake-pops, muffin tops, and endless bakery fads and sweet sensations, the legend of the perfect pie crust endures. And so do its followers, like Gjelina Pastry Chef Nicole Rucker, who joined the ranks of the crust-obsessed as an amateur. "I fell in love with pie as soon as it hit the table," says Rucker, whose family ate mainly Native and Mexican American foods, reserving pie for celebrations. And while frozen Marie Callendar Banana Cream may have satisfied holiday cravings, savory pie made a more profound first impression. "My dad's side of the family liked to take us to a little San Diego spot called The Chicken Pie Shop," says Rucker. "I think my real first memory of pie was that chicken pot pie covered in gravy."

Pork and Peas Pie, Apple, Fennel, Celery, and Parsley Salad

Pork and Peas Pie, Apple, Fennel, Celery, and Parsley Salad

A pastry selection at Gjelina's Take Away, Los Angele, CA

Pastry Chef Nicole Rucker of Gjelina Take Away- Los Angeles, CA

Tender, buttery, deep-dark-golden-brown, Rucker's pie crust may make you weak in the knees. Don't worry-the butter will cushion your fall. "I worked very hard on this crust and developing it just as I wanted it to be," says Rucker. The savory pie at Gjelina's-Rucker's masterwork in meat and dough-contains a filling studded with pork belly, peas, carrots, and Gravenstein apples. It's all hidden beneath the voluptuous blanket of Rucker's stellar crust. Rucker uses a combination of classic fraisage and her own idiosyncratic adjustments to perfect her crust. She handles the dough slightly more than other bakers. "If the ratio of fat to flour is good, then the gluten production is different," says Rucker. And she incorporates a tenderizing vinegar syrup, an idea she first came across "in an Australian cookbook, but then began to see pop up in old-school pie books as I got deeper into the rabbit hole of research."

The final imperative for Rucker's method is temperature. "The initial blast of heat is very important to set the dough," but "a good butter-flour ratio can still lose its shape when first put into the oven." Her solution is simple, effectively cancelling high baking temps out with lower product temps. "I prevent this by freezing the pie after crimping, for about 15 minutes," she says. "It gets very cold when it meets that first blast of heat."

Rucker's recipe testing process was meticulous. And there was a lot of pie eating. "We ate nearly all the trials along the way to the perfect crust, but the one that came out was just right," says Rucker. "It was super obvious. It just had this look that spoke to me. It was like no other crust I'd ever seen."

Her pork and peas pie is served in a cast iron pan, the crust hanging tantalizingly over the sides of its dish, waiting for the first greedy plunge of a fork. This is where the legend of pie crust begins, in a puff of steam.

After Rucker's trials and winning the KCRW Annual Good Food Pie Contest in Los Angeles, Rucker hit the highway. A road trip to the National Pie Championship in Orlando (in which she won a blue ribbon for her apple pie) became an intensive education in pie people, pie Americana, and pie tasting. "It quickly turned into conversations about people, pride, families, and community," she says. "And pie was the starting point."

The seeming simplicity of crust-and the elusiveness of perfection-are what make it so storied. And, increasingly broadcast. "It's a thing of pride and skill," says Rucker. "A balance of gluten and fat and heat, and what they add up to can be awful, or great. Pie is having a moment for sure," Rucker says. "I wouldn't exalt it above the rest. But I do think it's important to have a few things that you have researched to death and are very proud to be good at. For me, one of those things is pie."