Old lady at the farmers market taught me a better pie crust trick

I was selling pies at the downtown Saturday market when this 80 year old woman named Ruth came up to my booth. She took one look at my crust and said "you're overworking it honey, that's why it's tough." She showed me how to use cold grated butter instead of cubes and barely touch the dough. Tried her method on Sunday and my pie crust came out flaky for the first time ever. Anyone else have a random stranger drop baking wisdom on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

patricialee1mo ago

you're overworking it" is the realest thing I've ever heard. I started using a pastry blender and barely mixing and it completely changed my results.

jennys721mo ago

Oh yeah, I had the same lightbulb moment! I switched to just using my fingertips to rub the butter into the flour and stopped worrying about perfect little pea-sized bits. Way less stress and the texture turned out way better.