OCT
12
Kitchen Tip: Trick for Cutting Butter into Flour
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Do you have trouble making tender, flaky, biscuits, pie crusts, or scones?
You know when a recipe, particularly something like a biscuit or scone recipe, tells you to cut the butter into the flour mixture? There are several ways you can go about doing this.
Ways to cut butter into flour:
- Use a food processor and pulse the mixture until you have a crumb like mixture.
- Use two knives and literally cut the butter into the flour until you have little tiny bits of butter.
- Use a pastry blender which ultimately works pretty similar to the knife method but is easier.
Or you can use this little trick, my personal favorite. Why is it my favorite? You can work with the butter while it’s frozen (I store extra butter in the freezer), thus keeping the butter as cold as possible. Little bits of very cold butter mixed in with the flour mixture is the key to moist, flaky biscuits, pie crusts, scones, or any other recipe that calls for the butter being cut into the flour.
What is the trick?
I like to take a frozen stick of butter and grate it using the largest holes of a box cheese grater, as opposed to cutting the butter using other methods such as a food processor or pastry cutter. It works great for me this way, but it certainly isn’t the only method that works. I do think it’s faster than cutting with a pastry cutter and definitely has less clean up than a food processor. Work’s for me!
Then, mix the cold, grated butter into the flour mixture. After you’ve mixed it all up, stick the bowl of the flour and butter mixture in the freezer for a few minutes to get the butter really, really cold again. Finally, proceed with the rest of the recipe according to the instructions.
About the Author:
Katie’s lifelong interest in cooking good food has shown her that part of the goodness in life is enjoying delicious food with friends and family. She is: Writer. Photographer. Recipe Developer. Website Founder. Lover of all things good in life. Wife & Mom. A mix of great recipes, family memories, and yummy photography is what Katie serves up each week at GoodLife Eats™. Katie resides in Colorado with her husband and two children.
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Hello! I'm Katie Goodman, author of GoodLife Eats Etc. where I share what I find in my life. A mix of great recipes, family memories, adventures, good reads, and anything else that I love is what you will discover here.
This is such a great tip! I will definitely be trying this out over the weekend! Thanks so much for sharing it
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I agree and do this too. I saw this tip several years ago in Cook’s Illustrated and loved it. I have used it many times since. It works great!
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This is a great tip!
When I cut shortening into flour for my biscuits I just “rub” it in with my fingers. . . but of course if I try that for pie crust it will warm it up and melt it in-which would be a “bad” thing
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What a great tip, thank you! I’ll definitely be using it to make some biscuits later tonight.
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Great tip! Until I picked up a mini food processor I had a lot of trouble with this step.
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Love this tip! I’m going to start a stash of butter in my freezer too!
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i always use the food processor because it’s easy, but this method looks great too! thanks for the tip
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Love this trick! I have a garlic cheddar biscuit recipe that will be much flakier now.
Thanks!
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Thanks! Now it can use this method rather than my old way. Looks so much easier than most ways….Thanks again!
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What a great idea!
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I saw Aaron do that on Big Daddy’s House over the weekend for making scones and wanted to try it. Glad to know it works!
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Wow, that is a great way to do it! I’ll have to try that sometime.
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i freeze butter & then grate it too! but i never thought to stick the flour/butter back in the freezer. good tip!
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Great tips! I do the same thing with the cheese grater for my butter!
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I have the same 4 plates from Macys! Love them
Great photos.
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genius
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oh. my. goodnes. you are a GENIUS! you know, I don’t have a food processor nor a pastry blender in my house, and the only way for me was the one with the two knives…. which made me really tired after the one (and because of this only) time i’ve made pie dough. but now thanks to you i’ll be doing it much often!!! thanks a million!!
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Welp, I already hungry, but now my hunger pangs are in full throttle. Thank you very much.
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Nice tip. I’ll have to give frozen shredded butter a try. It was so nice to meet you this weekend.
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Well THAT makes a ton of sense, especially since we frequently stock up on butter and freeze it when it’s on sale anyway. Fab tip!
I enjoy your blog a whole lot! I hope you’ll stop over and visit sometime over at Free 2 Be Frugal.
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What a great idea! Thanks!
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What a fabulous idea!!! can’t wait to try it.
I have been following your blog for some time now & I think this may be my first comment; but you are at my dinner table often.
Thank you for all the really great recipies & shortcuts.
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Great tip! I have a scone recipe that calls for grating frozen butter, and I agree that it’s easier than cutting it into cubes!
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That’s a great tip. I have done it before and it’s very effective.
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Never in a million years would I have thought of that. And I always groan when the recipe calls for cutting in the butter. It just never works properly for me – too fine or too big. Thanks for the tip!
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Thanks! This is really a great tip!
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Fantastic. I have a hard time with anything that calls for cutting in butter. (When my sister visits I force her to make pie crusts to stash in my freezer. She has the touch.)
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That’s two great ideas you’ve given me this week, the ziplock bag for filling shells worked like a charm too!
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Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your view with us.
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Well – that’s the “gratest” idea I’ve ever seen for cutting in chilled butter!
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This tip is awesome and I’m going to give it a try! Thank you for sharing!
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What a wonderful idea! Thanks for that!
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