All butter all the time for me. But stick with the Cabot's or an equivalent butter. During some lean times I switched to cheaper butter and thought I'd totally lost my touch with pie crust. The cheaper the butter the more water is in it and the more the gluten develops. It gets you a crust that hard to roll out, gets overworked too easily and always comes out tough. I tried rendering my own lard for a while but really wasn't happy with the crusts I made with it but the slight pork flavor really complimented an apple pie. I tried vodka once and wasn't impressed but I'll give it a few more tries now based on this new information. Great article, I appreciate the tips and the side by side comparisons.
November 20, 2014 at 12:01am