The hard choice between butter and shortening for pie crust

Last Thanksgiving I had to decide between using butter or shortening for my pie crust. I always used shortening because that's what my mom used, but I kept hearing online that butter gives better flavor. So I made two small test pies the week before, using the exact same recipe except for the fat. The butter crust tasted amazing but crumbled apart when I tried to serve it. The shortening crust held together perfectly but just tasted like flour and salt. In the end I used a 50/50 mix for the actual holiday pies. They came out good but not great, the flavor was better but the texture was still a bit off. Has anyone found a ratio that actually works well for both taste and structure?

1 comments

1 Comment

blair_lewis8519d ago

Have you tried doing a 75/25 split with butter as the 75? That's what I settled on after my own Thanksgiving disasters. The butter flavor really comes through but you still get enough structure from the shortening to actually serve the pie without it falling apart. I also throw my butter in the freezer for 15 minutes before cutting it into the flour, that seems to help with the flakiness a TON. It's not 100% perfect but way better than the 50/50 mix I tried first.