The time a local baker told me I was ruining my pie crust by overworking it

I used to make pie crust the way my mom did, just mixing until it felt right. Then this older guy at the farmer's market in Portland last summer watched me press dough into a tin and flat out said, "You're making shoe leather." He was right. I was kneading it like bread instead of barely touching it. Now I stop the second the butter chunks are the size of peas and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. The difference is night and day, flaky instead of tough. Has anyone else had a stranger call them out on a cooking habit?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai_west3d ago

The farmer's market baker who called me out was a lady in her 70s, she watched me roll out dough and just shook her head. She said I was treating it like play-doh instead of pastry. I was so embarrassed but she taught me to use ice water and barely touch it. Took me three tries to get the texture right. Now my crusts actually hold up and don't taste like cardboard. Best piece of unsolicited advice I ever got.

mason_jackson3d ago

Learned that same trick the hard way too, @kai_west now I keep my water ice cold on the counter before even starting.