Rant: I was overworking my pie dough for years and didn't know it.

I was making my great aunt's apple pie last Thanksgiving, same as always. My cousin, who went to culinary school in Chicago, watched me and just said, 'You're going to make it tough.' I was mixing the butter and flour until it looked like fine sand. She showed me her way, leaving pea-sized chunks of butter. The crust came out flaky for the first time ever. Anyone else have a family recipe step they were doing totally wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_cooper571mo ago

Fine sand texture is the classic way to do it... that's how my grandma taught me and her pies were always perfect. Maybe the problem was your oven temp or the type of apples, not the dough.

faithgonzalez1mo ago

Grandma's pies were perfect but she used lard, not butter like you said.

noahlane1mo ago

Yeah my grandma swore by lard too, @faithgonzalez, it just makes the crust flaky.