Kitchen

[house_cat]

I learned to make it using frozen butter that I shave into the dough using a box grater.

I use the side with the teardrop shaped holes.

I find this is a real time and labor saver. I was talking to some friends about it and they'd never heard of doing it this way, so I thought I'd share.

Does anyone else do this?

[Snicks1]

I don't, but it sounds like a good idea. I actually buy pre-made crusts, making them from scratch is so messy, and time consuming. I applaud you for making your own though.

[magicmoodz]

I don't make pie crusts, hc. But I do swear the trick to making a good scone is using frozen butter.

[house_cat]

On 6/19/2014 magicmoodz said:

I don't make pie crusts, hc. But I do swear the trick to making a good scone is using frozen butter.

Yes. For sure. I do the same thing with scones.

[Deadeye Daisy]

Used to grate frozen butter and lard for crusts until the mid 70s.

That's when I got my first food processor at home. (In the 60s, we used a Robot-Coupe at the restaurant to make crusts; would have killed to have that monster in my kitchen, along with the commerical Bamix).

These days, it's far easier and faster to use the food processor than to grate the shortening. Takes less than a minute to make a crust.

[Sooner]

On 6/20/2014 Deadeye Daisy said:

Used to grate frozen butter and lard for crusts until the mid 70s.

That's when I got my first food processor at home. (In the 60s, we used a Robot-Coupe at the restaurant to make crusts; would have killed to have that monster in my kitchen, along with the commerical Bamix).

These days, it's far easier and faster to use the food processor than to grate the shortening. Takes less than a minute to make a crust.

Are you saying you GRATE it first with the processor's grating blade then use the blade in the processor to finish it, or do you just use the blade alone? I use the processor and it makes wonderful crusts in a jiffy, but I just use the blade and cut up cold fat of some sort.

We're the only people I know who had the very first food processors. You predate me a little, but I had the first Cuisinarts sold in the US and I fell in love in about 10 minutes when I got it going. It was absolutely amazing to see what it could do! LOL!!!

[house_cat]

I've made many crusts in my Cuisinart, but generally, when I'm in the mood for making pie or scones, I'm also in the mood to go through the ritual of doing it the old fashioned way. It's comforting to me. If I had to make crusts more often, I'd opt for the processor.

[depglass]

Wonder how this technique would work with scones? The only batch I tried were over mixed.

[house_cat]

On 6/20/2014 depglass said:

Wonder how this technique would work with scones? The only batch I tried were over mixed.

Okay, I'm glad you said that. If you'll give me a second to pat myself on the back (pat,pat), I have to say that I make excellent scones. The reason is that I follow this recipe as demonstrated here by Annabelle White. The downside is that everywhere you go, people will ask you to bring them. In any case, they're easy to make. I like them best plain, but I've added dried blueberries or raisins. I brush them when they're cool with a mix of powdered sugar/milk.

Yum!

[Sooner]

We make scones and biscuits the same way--it really doesn't matter whether you cut the fat in by hand, use the machine (don't over mix) or even use a liquid fat like cream or cream and yogurt. The important thing is not to add too much flour and not to overwork the dough. use your hands, a fork, a spatula or anything else but DON'T overwork the dough. I like my scones patted into circles and cut into triangles.

Folding the biscuit dough over on itself three or four times with some flour on the outside (just a LITTLE flour that it picks up off the bench and your hands) helps you get those layers! And for really great scones and biscuits, use soft wheat flour like White Lily!