A regular at my old shop in Madison taught me the real trick with pie crust

This older lady named Evelyn would come in every Saturday for a slice of cherry pie. One day, she saw me struggling with a tough crust and just said, 'Your butter's too warm, honey. It needs to be colder than you think, straight from the icebox for at least an hour.' I started freezing my butter for 45 minutes before cutting it in, and it made all the difference. How do you all keep your fats cold enough in a warm kitchen?

3 comments

3 Comments

jessicahill22d ago

Freezing butter can make it too hard to work into the flour evenly. I keep mine just fridge-cold and use a box grater to shred it straight into the bowl. The little shreds coat the flour fast, so your hands don't warm it up. A cold marble slab for rolling helps more than icy butter in a warm room.

mila_jones3922d ago

Freezing it works fine if you just bash the bag a few times first, lol.

noah_black22d ago

Grating is smart, but you can also freeze the butter and then use a cheese plane to shave off thin curls. Those melt into the flour even faster than shreds. The key is getting the butter surface area huge before it touches your warm hands.