Doughcha Want To Know?

You likely won't be surprised to read that we get quite a few questions about our pie dough at PJP.  Mostly, people want to know if they can have the recipe (no) and if we make it ourselves at PJP Buttonwood (yes).  So, here is everything there is to know about our dough...

1. The recipe we use for our dough belong to my grandmother, Irene Phelps.  She passed away when I was five and what I remember about her is fairly limited, but I'll tell you this...she was left-handed, she had no middle name, she was a state champion bowler, and she made a batch of pie dough every single day while Jeanne was growing up.  (As a kid, the no-middle-name thing fascinated me.)  Often when we are baking, Jeanne and I like to discuss what Irene would think about our business built on the dough recipe she created.  And we think she would love what we are doing.
2. Irene created her dough recipe based on what was readily available in her pantry and not expensive.  Ever notice that when you look at a prepared pie dough in a grocery store, the ingredients will include at least 10 things you have never heard of and can't pronounce?  Not our dough...less than five ingredients and 100% real with no preservatives.
3. The ingredients for the dough are simple, but I can't tell you what they are.  As a side note, I can say that while Julia Child and a few others suggest you include butter in your pie dough, Julia Child had obviously never met Irene Phelps.  No butter in the PJP dough, so vegans and other dairy-free people rejoice...
4. I just looked up the Martha Stewart pie dough recipe out of curiosity and it made me want to lay down and take a nap after reading it.  Martha is always very keen on making every thing seem difficult.
5. The PJP dough recipe does not exist in written format.  This drives Behind-The-Scenes Tech Guru Jason absolutely CRAZY and he continually reminds me that even the original Coca-Cola recipe exists in written format.  Perhaps when we have a PJP headquarters, we will write it down and store it in a vault.  Knowing us though, we probably won't.
6. We make all of the dough at PJP Buttonwood.  And when I say "we", I mean "Jeanne".  She is responsible for 99.8% of dough production.  She is the dough master and I'm simply in training.  Consider her Mr. Miyagi.
7. I couldn't even guess at how many pounds of dough are made at PJP Buttonwood each week.  Jeanne makes it in batches and then we weigh it into individual balls...we know exactly how much is used in a nine-inch and in a five-inch pie.  That is about as official as we get and it makes us feel very fancy.
8. We roll our dough exceptionally thin at PJP.  The bane of Jeanne's existence is thick dough.
9. Our dough works great with savory pies, which gives us a lot to contemplate and plan for in the coming months.
10. We've pretty much overdosed ourselves on pie, but will on regular occasion eat pie dough without a second thought.  You think we would be tired of it by now, but not so much.

We will plan to have some pie dough out for sample tomorrow at PJP Buttonwood, so be sure to stop by and see us so that we have an excuse to stop what we are doing and eat some dough too...