This morning in my email I received an offer to buy a bamboo rolling pin recommended by Cake Boss Buddy Valastros on a site called Open Sky.
This bamboo rolling pin was $20 and that’s not a lot of money really. But I would like to suggest is that before you go out and spend money on a brand new rolling pin, try checking out your local good will, thrift shops, yard or estate sales. Over the years I have found rolling pins at all of these places… and they can usually be purchased for a few dollars or less.
For me there is something kind of cool about using a kitchen tool that has been used (and loved) before. It’s as if the tool has been passed on to you from someone on purpose… and you get to use it for a fraction of the cost of buying new. Now, if you are sure that you will be using that rolling pin for years, and money is not an issue, by all means by a new one. But if you are only going to make one or two pies a year, why bother?
Now I will get down off my soap box and tell you about a technique for making pie dough that I learned in a class I attended this past weekend. It was lead by Cory Shreiber. He and pastry chef Julie Richardson recently co-authored a rustic dessert cookbook. One of the suggestions for making flakier pie dough was to use a grater for the butter (as opposed to cutting it into small chunks) before mixing it with the flour.
I hope that you are able to see the marbling of the butter in this piece of pie dough. That marbling is what gives the dough it’s flakiness. For more tips on pie crusts, check out this page.
This afternoon I delivered my pie to the tellers at US Bank in Ashland. We have been customers of this branch for quite some time and have always enjoyed a very good relationship with the staff there. They have made the extra effort to make us feel valued and and always show an interest in our lives by asking about our family, work, etc. I want them all to know that we really appreciate the personal touch that they offer.
Pie a Day Give Away 
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