The bakery lady in Portland taught me a trick about pie crust that actually works

I was at some tiny bakery in Portland last spring and the owner saw me staring at her lopsided pies. She told me to chill my butter in the freezer for 20 mins before cutting it into the flour so the chunks stay solid. Has anyone else tried this and actually gotten flakier crust?

3 comments

3 Comments

andrewt412mo ago

Froze my butter for 25 minutes last weekend, best crust I've made in years.

wood.john2mo ago

Wait, 25 minutes? That seems like a lot. If I freeze butter for more than 15 minutes it starts to get too hard and doesn't cut into the flour right. I usually aim for about 10-12 minutes in the freezer, just enough to firm it up but still soft enough to work with. Gotta be careful or you'll end up with chunks that don't blend evenly.

lopez.brooke1mo ago

10 to 12 minutes works fine if your kitchen is cold and you're working fast, but for most people that barely gets the butter cold enough. My grandma always said you want the butter so cold it hurts to touch it for more than a second. That 25 minute mark gives you a nice window where the butter is rock hard on the outside but still a little give inside, so when you grate it into the flour, those tiny shards stay separate instead of melting into a paste. Plus if you're like me and your hands run warm, the extra cold butter buys you time to work it without it softening on you. I'd rather have a few stubborn chunks I have to break up than end up with a tough crust because my butter got too warm too quick.