![]() Kate McDermott, author of " Art of the Pie," names "clean hands" as her favorite tool for baking pie. ![]() Your hands: The favorite tool of many seasoned bakers, working by hand allows you to feel the texture of the dough in a way nothing else can.A pastry fork is also handy for checking how large your fat pieces are if you've used a food processor. Pastry fork: A lesser-known tool is a pastry fork, an oversized fork with extra space between the tines.Knives in a bowl: This method uses two butter knives to slice the fat pieces in a bowl similar to the pastry blender method, although it will not be as precise.This 14-cup Cuisinart model can handle up to four pie crusts. A bonus is its ability to make a large batch of dough in advance. ![]() Food processor: While it won't produce dough that's quite as flaky as a perfectly executed hand-mixed dough, many bakers swear by the food processor for cutting fat in flour.If you don’t have a pastry cutter, here are some other methods for cutting fat into flour: Once your mixture comes together into a cohesive dough, you’re ready to shape, chill and bake the dough as directed.Īdvertisement Pastry blender alternatives However, for sticky doughs, like flaky southern-style biscuits or buttermilk scones, a thin plastic bowl scraper is handy for bringing the mixture together more neatly. Once liquid is added, mixing short dough is easiest with your hands. Then add the cold liquid you’ve reserved in the refrigerator to that well. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. ![]() Add cold liquidĪt this point, the fat has been cut into the flour, and you’re finished with the pastry blender. You may need to use a fork or spatula to get a better look. Keep repeating this motion until the butter pieces reach the size specified in the recipe ("pea-sized" is common). Turn your bowl (a quarter-turn or so) each time to blend more evenly. Grasping the handle of the pastry blender, push straight down onto the butter pieces and lift back up again, knocking excess fat and flour off the blades as needed. Remove the butter from the freezer and sprinkle on top of the dry ingredients. You can also leave your butter in larger pieces if your recipe calls for it, but precutting makes it easier to keep the butter cold throughout the process. Cut butter into cubes between a ¼ and ½ inch in size (depending on the recipe) and freeze for at least 15 minutes. A liquid measuring cup with ice water works well. On a hot summer day, your butter might start melting before it incorporates properly. While using a pastry blender allows you to achieve the most delicate texture, since you can carefully monitor to prevent over-mixing, it also takes longer than other mixing methods. At the furthest extreme, some recipes even call for freezing the dry ingredients before starting to blend.įreezing the butter is the most important step you can take before blending. One theme you’ll see over and over in recipes is cold ingredients: cold fat (whether you’re using butter, lard or shortening) and cold liquid (typically water for pie crust and cream or buttermilk for biscuits and scones). You won't have time to stop once you start mixing. How to make pastry dough Prepare your ingredientsīefore you start blending the fat and flour together, make sure you're using a reliable recipe, and that all of your ingredients are measured and at the right temperature. Recipes call for cutting fat into pieces the size of peas, almonds or even walnuts.Ī pastry blender will help you to get the right-sized pieces by hand without warming the fat with your body heat. Incredibly tender and light, fragile flaky doughs can even shatter in your mouth - think Southern biscuits, croissants or puff pastry. Recipes typically call for cutting fat into pea-sized pieces (or smaller) before adding liquid, which in the end will be a mixture with the texture of wet sand.įlaky doughs, on the other hand, depend on larger pieces of fat to create bursts of steam that lifts and separates the flour mixture into layers. Dense but still tender, mealy dough is perfect for creating the bottom crust in a pie pan, lining a tart pan or shaping décor. If you are making a mealy dough (such as pâte brisée), the fat pieces (usually butter) are broken down finely in the dough so that most of the flour is coated in fat.
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