FOOD & WINE: CONSIDER ADDING ANIMAL FAT TO YOUR PIE CRUST
At Anthony Wells’ Juniper & Ivy in San Diego, pastry chef Lindsay Sipress makes a popular maple cream pie with duck fat crust, using leftover fat from a duck dish. The rendered duck fat lends the pie an umami undertone, while upholding the crust’s structural integrity, exactly as a fat should.
“Animal fats are much softer than butter, so they add a nice, delicate textural component,” Sipress says. “In the case of the maple cream tart, the duck fat adds the perfect soft, salty, savory layer to balance that sweet, sticky, chewy filling.”
With pie season upon us, we chatted with Sipress about how to incorporate leftover animal fat into our favorite desserts.