![]() With all that said, we hate cleaning dishes and since a food processor means 5 parts to clean (yes we counted) we tried this method by hand. Using the food processor eliminates variability. (You don’t want to add water to the food processor - that can overwork the dough and lead to extra gluten formation). Pulse a few times then transfer everything to a bowl and add water until the dough comes together. Use the food processor to make the paste then add the remaining flour. We sort of agree - It makes making the flour and butter paste easy. The folks at Cooks Illustrated insist on using a food processor for this method. Making the Dough – By Food Processor or by Hand Since it’s more pliable, the dough is easily rolled out. That butter and flour paste really helps when it comes to working with the dough.By adding part of the flour to the butter first, combing them into a paste then adding the remaining flour, the recipe determines how much flour is being used for the formation of gluten. ![]() Our pie crust was tender with long thin layers of dough, making it perfectly flaky. It should stand up to fillings, but shouldn’t be chewy, hard or heavy. It isn’t crumbly, instead it’s made of long, thin layers of dough (see photo). Great pie crust shouldn’t become all soggy from juicy fillings, but is light enough to flake. This means perfect pie crust, every time. Then, you can add the remaining flour so the perfect amount of gluten develops. In other words, it helps to prevent the development of too much gluten. ![]() These raincoats make it very difficult for the flour to absorb water. Think of each particle of flour with butter raincoats. Remember that gluten is our enemy when it comes to pie dough? Well, Cook’s Illustrated found that if you thoroughly mix part of the flour with the fat (butter) and make a flour-butter paste first, every particle of that flour becomes coated in fat. What’s more important than vodka is the way you combine flour and fat (in our case, butter). Making Flaky Pie Crust - It’s About the Method It’s not something we store in our home often and it’s expensive. We love the idea and many swear it works, but adding a 1/4 cup of vodka to our homemade pie dough recipe just didn’t sit well with us. So, by replacing part of the water with vodka, it helps the pie crust become flakier and more tender. The theory is that vodka doesn’t promote gluten formation, whereas water does. That’s what got all the hype - why wouldn’t it, right? In their recipe, the vodka replaced some of the water. So, remember this: less gluten formation = flakier and more tender pie crusts.īack to the vodka. Some gluten is okay and actually needed for structure, but too much can really mess things up. Here’s all you really need to know: Gluten is an enemy to pie crust. Our high school science teachers would be proud. (We don’t add vodka - I’ll get to that in a minute).Ĭooks Illustrated looked at the science behind pie crust - and it made sense. You may have heard of it - they added vodka to their recipe. A while back Cooks Illustrated reworked pie dough. We just came across another way of how to make it. It’s not that our previous method failed us. A homemade pie crust recipe, rather a pie crust method, that’s consistent and makes dough that’s a dream to roll out. Then, we add just enough water to form the dough into a ball. We cut butter (or other solid fat) into flour until the butter and flour look crumbly and have pieces of butter the size of peas. We’ve been making pie crust the same way in our kitchen for years. ![]() How to Make Our Favorite All-Butter Pie Crust
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |