I've tried the cream cheese pastry crust recipe from the Pie & Pastry
Bible. It calls for kneading the dough in a ziplock freezer bag. I find
that the dough gets stuck in the corners especially, sticks to the bag,
and is hard to remove without creating a gloppy mess in the bag and
leaving some behind. Am I doing something wrong? Is there another
method? Today I tried to mix / knead it in a bowl then on plastic wrap.
It was dry and resisted coming together enough. Thanks

On 6 May 2005 12:31:15 -0700

'gloppy' is a term I'd associate with a wet mass, but, maybe that's not
the point.

The point of using plastic when making a pastry dough is to keep the
bits of it together. Pasty doughs are necessarily dry, and tend to be
crumbly until rested or laminated.

I'm no pastry chef but the practice with really dry pastry doughs is
usually to wrap it air-tight and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes to
an hour to allow the flour to hydrate and let the shortening re-solidify. A
good rest in the fridge will make it easier to work, and you won't have as
much trouble bringing it together.

If it were me I'd knead it in the bowl, then wrap it in plastic, then
roll it out between two sheets of the same plastic anywhere from 20 minutes
to an hour later.

But, my experience comes from experimentally laminating low hydration
biscuits.

No, it isn't you. While I like Rose Beranbaum's works and own the Pie &
Pastry Bible, I find the kneading of pastry dough in a zip lock bag to be
ridiculous. It's been a long time since I made the cream cheese pastry, so
I can't recall exactly how sticky it is. I know that there is a food
processor method for that dough, so I would recommend using that. If you
don't have a food processor, just make sure the butter and cheese are very
cold and cut into small pieces before adding to the flour. Use a pastry
cutter to cut them into the flour. Add the liquid and mix briefly with a
fork. I would then pour the mixture onto a well floured surface and with
the heel of your hand, lightly smear the mixture. Gather with a bench
scraper, and quickly work it into a ball. Keep your hands well floured. An
alternate method I use for very wet doughs like biscuits is to dump the
mixture onto a well floured Silpat. I sprinkle some flour on top of the
mixture and then use the Silpat the fold it over itself a few time until it
comes together - maybe three or four times. If you don't have a Silpay, try
using some wax paper or plastic wrap. If the mixture is too dry, sprinkle a
little more water over it. You just have to adjust as you go. Practice
makes perfect.