Kitchen Tip: Trick for Cutting Butter into Flour
One of my all time favorite kitchen tips is this trick for cutting butter into flour!
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 to cut butter into flour?
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.
What is your favorite trick for cutting butter into flour?
Love this kitchen tip?
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How To Cut Butter into Flour
4 different ways to cut butter into flour for recipes like pie crusts or biscuits. The 4th way on this list is my all time favorite kitchen tips is this trick for cutting butter into flour!
Ingredients
- Flour
- Butter
Instructions
Food Processor
- Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon sized slices.
- Add the flour and cold butter to the bowl of a food processor.
- Pulse the mixture until you have a crumb like mixture.
- Proceed with your recipe as instructed.
Two Knives
- Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon sized slices.
- Add the flour and cold butter to a bowl.
- Use two knives and literally cut the butter into the flour until you have little tiny bits of butter.
- Proceed with your recipe as instructed.
Pastry Blender
- Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon sized slices.
- Add the flour and cold butter to the bowl of a food processor.
- Use a pastry blender which ultimately works pretty similar to the knife method but is easier.
- Proceed with your recipe as instructed.
Cheese Grater
- Freeze the butter you plan to use in the recipe.
- Then, grate the butter using a box cheese grater.
- After you have grated all of the butter you plan to use, 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.
Notes
The cheese grater method is my favorite! 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 upthan a food processor.
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Heartfelt blessings and much thanks!
I don’t own either of the other two processor or pastry blender and my left wrist is still on the mend from shattering it in a fall on this past Christmas Day! I’m making cheese biscuits from scratch for the first time and was dreading trying to cut the butter in with two knives.
I always keep butter in my freezer, yay! I’m off to give it a grate and hopefully make very fluffy cheese biscuits.
I’ll post a report after trying the finished product.
So glad that this sounds like it will help!
Would it be ok to freeze the dough if using frozen butter in the recipe? I want to make this recipe regularly but need to make it more convenient, like making a batch for the whole month in separate servings and transferring them to the fridge the night before I bake them.
yes that should be fine
OMG. I want to kiss you. Not being creepy, sorry. Just, I live in China and I don’t own a food processor or a pastry cutter thing so this is life-saving and awesome and quick and YAY! Thank you muchly!
Hi!
This seems like a great and neat trick! I was wondering, after you grate the butter, what do you use to stir it into the mixture? Thanks 🙂
a wooden mixing spoon
Thank you so very much!!!!!
Thanks so much for posting this! I have never had success cutting butter in using the food processor, because the pieces get too small. But I don’t have the hand strength to cut in using knives or a pastry cutting tool.
I was looking for ideas and alternate methods last night and found this post. I used my food processor to shred the frozen butter and then tossed it with my dry ingredients. The result was really perfect biscuits, puffy and airy. Thank you so much. I am going to use this technique always, whenever I make biscuits or pie crust.
What a wonderful idea! Thanks for that!
This tip is awesome and I’m going to give it a try! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
Well – that’s the “gratest” idea I’ve ever seen for cutting in chilled butter! 🙂
Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your view with us.
That’s two great ideas you’ve given me this week, the ziplock bag for filling shells worked like a charm too!
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.)
Thanks! This is really a great tip!
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!
That’s a great tip. I have done it before and it’s very effective.
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!
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.
What a great idea! Thanks!
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.
Nice tip. I’ll have to give frozen shredded butter a try. It was so nice to meet you this weekend.
Welp, I already hungry, but now my hunger pangs are in full throttle. Thank you very much.
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!!
genius
I have the same 4 plates from Macys! Love them 🙂 Great photos.
Great tips! I do the same thing with the cheese grater for my butter!
i freeze butter & then grate it too! but i never thought to stick the flour/butter back in the freezer. good tip!
Wow, that is a great way to do it! I’ll have to try that sometime.
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!
What a great idea!
Thanks! Now it can use this method rather than my old way. Looks so much easier than most ways….Thanks again!
Love this trick! I have a garlic cheddar biscuit recipe that will be much flakier now.
Thanks!
i always use the food processor because it’s easy, but this method looks great too! thanks for the tip 🙂
Love this tip! I’m going to start a stash of butter in my freezer too!
Great tip! Until I picked up a mini food processor I had a lot of trouble with this step.
What a great tip, thank you! I’ll definitely be using it to make some biscuits later tonight.
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 🙂
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!
This is such a great tip! I will definitely be trying this out over the weekend! Thanks so much for sharing it 🙂