Grated Pie Crust: A Pie Crust for the Pie-Challenged?

Have you ever heard of a “grated” pie crust?

A recent guest on Evan Kleiman’s “Good Food PieCast” mentioned this curious crust while describing her signature Polish apple pie. From the sounds of it, not only does this pie give you a wonderfully crumbly and crunchy top crust, it’s as easy as can be!

If you can grate a block of cheese, you can make this pie crust.

This pie crust starts off like any other: make your dough, divide it in two and chill, then roll out the bottom crust. The difference comes in the top crust, which is my personal pie-nemesis.

Toward the middle of baking, you take that second ball of dough and actually grate it with a cheese grater directly over the hot pie. Kleinman’s guest Beth Kendrick describes it as looking like confetti.

I can only imagine what a striking pie this must be. All those golden “confetti” bits with their crispy edges, and the fruit bubbling up here and there in between. It’s a monument to those of us who love a flaky pie crust!

This Polish apple pie, properly called szarlotka, has some other interesting attributes as well. Check out the recipe and hear the full interview on the Good Food website:

• Get the Recipe! Apple Pie from the Good Food Blog
• Here the Full Interview: Author Beth Kendrick on the Good Food PieCast with Evan Kleiman

Have you ever made a pie with a crust like this?

Related:

Look! A Top-Only Pie Crust of Overlapping Shapes

(Image: Flickr member secretlondon123 licensed under Creative Commons)