Working Butter Into Pie Crust Is A Breeze With This Handy Tool - Tasting Table

"All of your efforts to craft the perfect flaky pie crust will be in vain if you fail to reach the right size butter pieces, don't distribute the fat well enough, or melt the butter before your pie crust even reaches the oven. Luckily, a single tool can help solve these three major pie baking problems: a pastry cutter (also known as a pastry blender)."

"While you could manually break down the butter with your fingers, the heat from your hands can cause the butter to warm, prompting it to melt into your dough rather than retain its shape and its hardness. While this tool is especially useful for making pie crusts, you can also use it for making the streusel on a homemade crumb cake, or any occasion where you need to break fat down into small pieces without wanting to get your fingers dirty."

"However, you're going to want to take our advice on this one and avoid super cheap models that bend easily under pressure. You can also find some models with a comfortable ergonomic grip handle, though if you feel you have to put your whole body weight into the fat to break it and work at it for hours with your cutter, it may be a sign that the butter is a bit too cold to be making a pie with in the first place."

Using a pastry cutter helps maintain cold butter pieces and achieves evenly distributed fat for a flaky pie crust. The tool's rocker shape and tines break butter into small pieces without warming them from hand contact. Avoid flimsy cheap cutters that bend; choose a sturdy model with a comfortable ergonomic handle. Excessive force while cutting indicates butter is too cold and should be rested slightly. Hand-held pastry blenders outperform stand-mixer blender attachments because they allow control over large butter pieces and gradual reduction to the desired size. The cutter also works well for streusel and other fat-distribution tasks.

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