Momma taught me right???

Today was the long awaited baking food lab. I have been excited about this lab since day one of class. Why? cause I am good at this stuff...not to toot my horn excessively but this comes natural to me. Pie crust, rolls, muffins all things that my Mom taught me to do since I was old enough to use a sharp knife (age 8). We discussed biscuit making today and to end a long debate between members in my family yes, you do knead biscuits briefly like 2-3 times no more because you will cause the gluten to form and then your biscuits won't be flaky and tender. Biscuits also are a one pass baked good so don't cut them into round biscuits and then reform them, the reworking of them will make them too tough. While making our fabulous blueberry muffins we learned a very valuable lesson, mix your muffins with a spoon. I know sounds weird but by using a whip you are going to end up overmixing your muffins which will lead to a serious offense called tunnelling. Tunnelling is the big tunnels that you get in store-bought-way-too-huge muffins they also cause the muffins to get a peak in the middle of them. As Chef put it the only muffins that should have holes in them need to have the word "English" infront of the muffin. So by using the spoon test this out, and only mix them until all dry ingredients are incorporated. My masterpiece today however was my pie crust...This is when having a huge family gathering around the holiday's comes in handy especially when it comes to dessert. I have been making pie crust my Mom's way since I was 15, now 12 years later I have learned a new way and I can't wait to put it to use!!! Shortening has no place in a pie crust it leads to a bitter oily crust that tends to get too tough if they are even slightly overworked. However if you replace that fake fat to a half and half ratio of butter and lard your crust will lose the bitter taste and actually be more tender. LARD?! No way! That's the terrible stuff that is way too bad for you...All fat in excess is bad for you. Sorry, I hate to burst your bubble but if you are eating that much pie that you are worried about the fat in your pastry dough you need to cut back on your pie intake. And actually, if you use natural fats instead of these combo hydrogenated fats you will find that your body actually uses the fat in a more natural way. All in all what was reinforced to me today? My mom did actually teach us to the best to her ability and she wasn't really that far off, with the proper techniques she could improve...now I just have to show her. Odd how life's lessons can seem to be reversed. I just hope she doesn't throw the temper tantrums that I did when I was 8...