Swapped butter for shortening in my pie crust and finally got flaky layers
I was trying to make a double crust apple pie for Thanksgiving and kept getting tough, dense dough. Read online that butter has too much water for flaky pastry, so I tried a 50/50 mix with Crisco from the Piggly Wiggly in town. The crust came out super tender and actually held together when I cut it, but it didn't taste as rich as all butter. Has anyone else gone half and half on fats for pie dough?
Did you let the dough rest long enough? Last time I did a half and half mix I got too excited and rushed the chilling step, ended up with a crust that looked great but kinda crumbled into a mess when I tried to get the first slice out lol. My grandma used to swear by straight lard for everything but I tried it once and the whole house smelled like bacon for two days. Not complaining about that honestly but it was weird with apple pie.
Totally agree with you on the texture, I read somewhere that the water in butter makes steam which is good for puff but bad for a tender crust. @ryan793 you're not wrong about lard either, I tried a mix with leaf lard once and it was amazing but yeah the bacon smell hung around for days.