Loading…
29
Had to pick between butter and shortening for my pie crust yesterday
Went with shortening because I wanted flaky layers, but my crust came out tough as leather. Anyone else have better luck with all-butter for fruit pies?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
henryr453mo ago
Yeah I heard about that trick where you freeze the butter and grate it into the flour. It makes little flat pieces that create steam pockets for flakiness. Shortening is fine for tenderness but all butter gives way more flavor for fruit pies. The key thing I read is to not overwork the dough or your crust gets tough no matter what fat you use. Also letting it rest in the fridge for at least an hour helps relax the gluten. So next time I'd try the frozen butter grated in, handle it as little as possible, and see if that fixes the leather issue.
1
the_robin3mo ago
100% been there with the leather crust situation. @henryr45 the grated frozen butter trick seriously works, just make sure you pop your bowl and flour in the freezer for like 10 minutes first too so nothing warms up while you're grating.
8
abbyhall3mo ago
Funny enough, @henryr45, my first attempt at pie crust was so tough you could have resurfaced a driveway with it. I literally threw the whole thing in the trash and ordered a pizza. But freezing the butter and grating it in was a total game changer for me. Just make sure your butter is actually frozen solid or else you just get a buttery mess on your grater which is more of a personal failure than cooking advice. The resting in the fridge part I definitely skipped the first few times because I was impatient. Now I just make the dough the night before and it works way better.
1