Pie crust with butter, butter/shortening, or shortening?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
B

BAPyessir6

Senior Cook
Joined
May 15, 2020
Messages
283
Location
Prior Lake
I usually make my pie crust with all butter (I hydrate the dough with a squirt bottle or just bits of super cold water, then let it rest in the fridge 1 hour before rolling out. I love it!). But I'm wondering if other wonderful bakers out there use butter/shortening/lard or a combination. Is one superior to the other? I've heard lard makes the crust more tender, butter makes it flakier (steam from water in butter) plus better flavor.

Basically, what do you guys use for a homemade pie crust? I grew up with all shortening crust, then switched to all butter as as adult. Workability aside, I just wonder if half/half would create a possibly superior product than all butter or all shortening/lard.
 
I started using 1/2 and 1/2 years ago.

I have used all lard, as we had bought some leaf lard for something, in a savory pastry dough. My DH told me it was the best pastry dough I'd ever made. So, I'll use lard when we have it for something like a pot pie. You can use it for dessert pies, as there's just the very faintest lard taste that would probably be covered up by sugar, but I never have.

Oh, if you freeze your butter or shortening, you can grate it into the flour and it requires less mixing, which can make tough dough. I've never tried to freeze lard.
 
Last edited:
So just to clarify, you use 1/2 lard, and 1/2 butter?

Basically I'm thinking shortening is the worst pick. 😆
 
BAPyessir6 said:
So just to clarify, you use 1/2 lard, and 1/2 butter?

Basically I'm thinking shortening is the worst pick. 😆
Click to expand...
Either. Nothing wrong with using shortening in a crust. My mother and grandmother used all Crisco for their pies and their pie crusts were fantastic, tender and flaky. Sadly, I have never been quite able to duplicate their crusts.
 
I make the crusts in the FP and use half butter/half shortening. I use just enough water to make it easy to roll out.
 
I make whole wheat pie crusts. It took me a while to get the pie crusts the I wanted them. At first they were downright tough. With lots of advice and a bit of experimentation, I eventually made a pie crust I was happy with. I used it for tourtière, a French Canadian savoury meat pie. It was made with lard, so I have a fondness for lard for pie crusts. Nowadays, I would most likely only use a lard crust for a savoury pie. I have had good success with just butter and the flavour is really nice. I haven't tried 50%/50% butter and lard yet. Before I do that, I will need to find a source of pure lard as opposed to the stuff at grocery store, which has BHA and BHT in it and I would rather not have those.
 
Pie is just a pleasant memory! 🥰

I used all Crisco.

It really depends on what you are looking for. Some of the old recipes for hot water pie crust made with lard or crusts that include vinegar and an egg can be very good.
 
Aunt Bea said:
Pie is just a pleasant memory! 🥰

I used all Crisco.

It really depends on what you are looking for. Some of the old recipes for hot water pie crust made with lard or crusts that include vinegar and an egg can be very good.
Click to expand...
That's a recipe I used to do when using the entire box of lard. Recipe was in the lid.
Now I almost always use butter for the few times I make crusts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
PASTIE CRUST
2
Replies
29
Views
3K
Kathleen
Kathleen
medtran49
Copycat Carrabba's mussels in lemon butter sauce
Replies
5
Views
1K
dragnlaw
dragnlaw
Texmex
Red potato microwave kit
2
Replies
35
Views
3K
Texmex
Texmex
medtran49
Pita 2 ways
Replies
1
Views
1K
msmofet
msmofet
Chief Longwind Of The North
Chief's Blueberry Muffin Cake
Replies
0
Views
2K
Chief Longwind Of The North
Chief Longwind Of The North

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom