Water creates gluten..if you replace half to all the water in any pastry or pie crust recipe with frozen vodka or similar neutral alcohol, you will get spectacularly crisp and light, flaky crusts! Another benefit, especially for beginners, is that because it won’t form gluten, you can treat the crust more roughly and use more liquid as many beginners do simply because they aren’t used to trying to get a dry crust together, this makes sense since we’ve determined that water makes gluten, therefor chefs always try to use the least amount possible to get their crusts together. In savory tart or quiche crusts, a more flavorful alcohol like gin works great. Try using half frozen vodka next time, or more, you’ll be amazed how flaky your results are!

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