Grandma's pie crust hack I discovered at the county fair

Watched a judge at the Iowa State Fair last year dunk her pastry blender in flour before cutting in butter and it made the crust so flaky I nearly cried. Anyone else got a weird little trick that totally changed their baking game?

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3 Comments

tara7934mo ago

Does dipping your hands in ice water before handling the dough count? I do it so my sweaty mitts don't melt the butter before it even gets in the crust. I've had more pie crust disasters than I can count, like the time I used warm butter on a 90 degree day and ended up with a greasy, tough hockey puck. That flour dunk trick sounds genius though, I'm definitely trying it next time I make a pie for the church potluck. My grandma used to swear by grating frozen butter into the flour, but I always cut my knuckles on the grater so I stopped. I'm basically a walking pie crust fail, but I keep trying because a good one is worth the trouble.

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ellis.leo3mo ago

Yep @tara793 grating frozen butter on a box grater works great. I just use the big holes, way less knuckle danger.

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beth_reed3mo ago

Oh man, the knuckle thing is REAL. I grated my knuckles raw once trying to do frozen butter for a pie crust and blood got in the flour mixture, which was just great. Now I freeze the butter and then just chop it into tiny cubes with a knife, way less danger. But I love that big hole trick, that might actually get me back to using the grater since I miss how fast it is.

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