My grandma's trick for flaky pie crust still works better than my food processor

I was over at my grandma's place in Louisville last month helping her bake for the county fair. She just grabbed a butter knife and cut the shortening into the flour by hand, no gadgets at all. Her crust came out way lighter and flakier than mine ever does with all that fancy equipment. Anyone else ditch the machines and go back to the old way?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_reed11d ago

BUTTER KNIFE" sorry that's what got me. I can barely slice a stick of butter with one of those things let alone cut shortening into flour. You serious? Your grandma just went at it with a regular butter knife and got better results than your food processor? Man that's wild. I've been using a pastry blender for years and thought I was old school. Maybe I'm overcomplicating things. Might have to try this butter knife method just to see if she's onto something.

wade_perez10d ago

My buddy Dave tried this last weekend after his grandma came to visit. He was like, "watch this" and just hacked away at some cold butter with a butter knife for like five minutes, flour flying everywhere. The biscuits came out surprisingly fluffy though, not gonna lie. @gavin_reed I think the secret is you gotta use the knife more like a scraper than a slicer, almost like you're shaving the butter into the flour.