When making pie dough, it's very important to use really cold butter. This will ensure that the crust is rich, flaky, and buttery. Most recipes remind you that the butter should be cold, but whenever I'm baking a pie, the first thing I do, before measuring anything, is cut the butter into 1/4-inch cubes. I put the cubes in a small dish and place it in the freezer. Then, I start making the dough. The butter is in the freezer for only a few minutes and doesn't really freeze; instead it gets really cold. Do you have a tip for great Thanksgiving pie?
Thanksgiving Tip: Freeze the Butter Before Making Pie
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Oliver Bonas
Once I'm done making the pie crust, and rolling it into the pie pan I will throw that in the freezer while I'm preparing the filling. It's close to the same concept. I have also found that using a ceramic pie dish rather than the aluminum ones is better.
1Is that the shortning next to the butter? I don't bake much so should I freeze both?
2Replace half the water with vodka. The results are incredible!
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/11/cooks-illustrated-foolproof-p...
3britestcrayon, have you tried it? I've always been curious about that!
I obsessively keep pie crust ingredients cold. Even shortening, which doesn't need to be refrigerated, goes into the freezer!
4I replace all the water with vodka from the freezer. You can never taste it once the dough is baked, and it really helps keep the butter from warming up, since it has such a higher freezing point than water.
5I freeze my butter almost solid, then I grate it using a box grater like you would use for cheese. Crusts go together in no time!
6Applejack is also great (tastes like apples!) and I really recommend using all butter and all applejack. There's enough water for the dough in the butter, but enough moisture from the applejack.
7But don't do shortening and applejack- driest crust ever...
I've used vodka in my pie crust and it works perfectly. It adds moisture without making the crust too tough.
8Make sure if you are freezing the butter that the pastry cutter you are using is up to it. I used a pampered chef pastry cutter and it killed it.
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