PSA: Room temp butter is a lie - I switched to grating frozen butter for pie crusts

After three soggy-bottomed disasters in a row last month, I tried grating a frozen stick of butter straight into my flour and my crust finally came out flaky, has anyone else found a weird shortcut that saved a recipe?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_jones7d agoTop Commenter

Oh man, the frozen flour trick is GENIUS actually. I started doing that too after watching a similar video and it changed everything. The key is to keep EVERYTHING cold, not just the butter. I actually go a step further now and freeze my mixing bowl for like 10 minutes before I start, and I use ice water instead of cold tap water. The combonation of frozen grated butter plus cold flour means the fat stays in SOLID pieces right up until it hits the oven heat. That's what gives you those layers instead of a paste. For the dry edges thing, I started brushing the very rim of the crust with a tiny bit of cold water before I fold the overhang under, that helps it stick without adding too much moisture to the whole dough. Also try using a food processor for the initial mix of flour and frozen butter, just pulse it until it looks like coarse cornmeal with some pea sized bits left, then add your ice water by the tablespoon. That way you don't overwork it with your hands and the gluten stays relaxed.

emma_flores8d ago

Stumbled across a baker on YouTube who swears by freezing the flour and butter together for 15 minutes before cutting it in, so I tried that plus the grating trick. My last apple pie actually held its shape without turning into a puddle of sadness, which felt like a small victory. Have you noticed the crust bakes up more evenly with the frozen grated bits versus room temp chunks? I'm still tweaking my water amount because mine came out a touch dry on the edges, but the flakiness was unreal.

susanb348d ago

Never even thought about the edges drying out from freezing... might be that the outside thaws faster while the middle stays cold, so it gets overworked where you press it together. Next time try wrapping the disk in plastic and letting it rest in the fridge for a full hour after mixing, that usually evens out the moisture for me.