Tried baking my grandma's pie crust recipe with butter versus shortening

I followed her old note card exactly, but used butter for one batch and shortening for the other. The butter version looked beautiful but shrank like crazy in my oven. The shortening one held its shape perfectly and was way flakier. My husband took one bite of each and said, 'The shortening one tastes like grandma's kitchen.' Anyone have a good trick to stop butter crusts from shrinking?

2 comments

2 Comments

brown.gavin6d ago

Funny how that works. My aunt swears by a mix of both fats now. She says the butter gives flavor but the shortening gives that structure you're missing. She chills everything, even the flour, and rolls it out between parchment paper. Still gets a little shrinkage though, so maybe it's just the price you pay for that butter taste.

irismartinez6d ago

I always thought shortening was cheating until I tried your aunt's method last Christmas. The mix really does give you the best of both worlds, even with a bit of shrinkage.