The cold water trick for pie dough that saved my Thanksgiving

I spent years fighting with warm, sticky pie dough and getting tough crusts. My grandmother always said to use ice water but I never took it seriously until last month. I started keeping a bowl of ice water in the fridge and using only that for my dough. The difference was shocking - the dough came together in half the time and stayed flaky. I measured it out and my crust shrinkage dropped from about 15% to maybe 3%. Has anyone else tried really cold water or do you have a different trick for keeping dough from getting tough?

4 comments

4 Comments

phoenix_martin408d ago

Ditching the ice cubes and just throwing my flour in the freezer for 15 minutes helped a ton.

willowr965d ago

Wait, doesn't freezing the flour kill the yeast's rising power?

nina_taylor8d ago

Phoenix_martin40's freezer trick is a good one, and I'm embarrassed to admit just how many years I spent with my poor, sweaty hands ruining batches of dough before I finally got serious about temperature. My own lightbulb moment came when I realized I could just fill a water bottle and stick it in the freezer for ten minutes before using it, which is basically the same as keeping ice water around without having to fish out a stray cube. I've even taken to wrapping my butter in wax paper and giving it a quick 5 minute chill before cutting it in, because apparently I can't be trusted to handle butter that's not almost frozen solid. It all sounds a little fussy, but a 3% shrinkage is a dream compared to the sad little hockey pucks I used to pull out of the oven.

brooke_taylor447d ago

Cold water made all the difference for me too. My dough used to crack and shrink no matter what I did. Keeping everything cold is the only way I get a decent crust now.