My grandma's trick for pie crust ruined my last 3 bakes

She told me to always use ice cold butter and handle the dough as little as possible. Turns out for my kitchen's humidity I actually need to chill the flour too, not just the butter. Anyone else have a family tip that backfired on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryan6531d ago

exactly, and it gets even weirder depending on your elevation too. my aunt gave me her tried and true pie recipe that worked for her for 40 years in ohio, but i live in colorado and the first three pies i made turned into dense hockey pucks. turns out high altitude does weird stuff to gluten development and moisture absorption, so i had to adjust the flour and liquid ratios way more than i expected. the "ice cold butter" thing still matters but it's not the whole picture, you gotta adapt to your actual kitchen environment. my mom still thinks im overcomplicating it but whatever, my pies actually turn out fluffy now.

campbell.nora1d ago

Dude, I feel you so hard on this. My grandma lives at sea level in Florida and I'm up in the mountains of Montana, and she keeps sending me her "perfect biscuit" recipe. I tried it once and it literally turned into a brick, I was so mad. She thinks I'm just bad at baking but the science is totally different up here. Had to cut way back on the flour and add more liquid just to get them to rise at all. It's wild how much your zip code changes the whole process, but nobody tells you that when you're starting out.