Daily Kitchen Note
Achieving a flaky pie crust can be challenging when butter warms up too quickly during mixing. Grating cold butter allows you to easily incorporate small, even pieces into your dough without melting them.
How to Grate cold butter
- Place your sticks of butter in the refrigerator or freezer until they are completely solid and cold.
- Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the cold butter directly into your bowl of dry ingredients.
- Gently toss the butter shreds with the flour mixture until evenly coated before adding your ice water.
Why it works
When small pieces of cold butter are distributed throughout the dough, they melt during baking to create pockets of steam. This steam lifts the layers of dough, resulting in a light and flaky pastry. Keeping the butter cold ensures it doesn't melt prematurely while you work the dough.
