Crawfish Pie

How to make Whole Wheat Pie Crust

1. If you haven’t already, slice the butter and place it on a freezer-safe plate. Transfer to the freezer.
2. Use a fine mesh strainer to sift the all-purpose and whole wheat flours together into a large bowl. Stir to combine.
3. Pour 2 cups of flour into the food processor. Add the salt, and process a few times to incorporate the ingredients.
4. Add the cold butter to the food processor. Pulse until the butter is broken into smaller pieces that are about the size of marbles.
5. Add the rest of the flour to the food processor. Process for 10 seconds. We want pea-sized chunks of butter here to speckle through our crust.
6. Transfer the dry crust ingredients to a mixing bowl.
7. Add the water and vodka, working slowly with a rubber spatula to incorporate them into the crust. If the dough is dry or crumbly, add additional water until the crust comes together and can hold together.
8. Form two dough rounds, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
9. Refrigerate for at least an hour, though you can let them sit in the fridge overnight or even for a few days.
10. How to shape and bake Whole Wheat Pie Crust
11. Roll the top crust into a round that is 1/8” thick. Use a knife to cut into an 8”x8” square and then slice into 1” strips. Transfer to a baking sheet, and place in the freezer. This will be our lattice crust.
12. Roll the bottom crust 1/8” thick round, and transfer to the deep dish pie dish. I like to fold my crust into half, then quarter and transfer to the pie dish.
13. Cover the pie crust with a layer of foil or parchment paper. Add pie weights (or dried beans if you don’t have them).
14. Blind bake at 375°F for 30(ish) minutes, or until the crust is partially baked through. Do not open the oven or peek at the pie crust while it bakes. We are blind baking the crust because we don’t want to overcook the crawfish filling or for this bottom crust to get soggy while the crawfish bakes.
15. Please note that you will need to blind bake a store-bough pie crust, too.
16. Remove the crust from the oven and remove the ceramic pie weights. Set aside.

How to make homemade Crawfish Pie

1. While the crust bakes, make the crawfish pie filling.
2. Drain the crawfish fat. The liquid in the crawfish packaging is the fat. DO NOT TOSS IT. Snip the corner of the packages to drain them into a separate container. We need this to add to the filling because it provides intense crawfish flavor.
3. Once you’ve drained most of the fat from the packaging, place the crawfish tails in a medium-sized bowl. Season them with the salt-free Creole seasoning. Toss with a rubber spatula, and set aside.
4. Melt the butter in a large saucepan or a small Dutch oven. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic to the pan. Cook until tender, about 5-8 minutes.
5. Sprinkle the flour on top, and stir it into the veggies, coating them and cooking for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add the crawfish fat on top of the veggie mixture, and cook until the mixture has thickened. Stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the bottom, and it’ll take around 10 minutes. You want it to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon because the more liquidy it is, the runnier your filling will be.
7. Add the crawfish tails and turn off the heat. We don’t want the crawfish to overcook, so we don’t want them to take much heat now.
8. Pour the crawfish filling into the blind baked (warm) pie crust. Top with the lattice topping, weaving the pieces together, and brush with an egg wash.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes in the preheated oven, rotating the pie halfway through.
10. When the lattice topping is golden brown, remove from the oven and let cool for 30-45 minutes.
11. Slice and serve with additional green onions, and enjoy!