To make short crust pastry in a food processor, which blade should I use? The sharp steel one or the blunt plastic one?

hardlikearmour is a trusted home cook.

added 4 months ago

When the folks at Cook's Illustrated tested food processors, they found the plastic dough blade not very functional. Use the metal.

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Suzanne is a trusted source on General Cooking.

added 4 months ago

I agree I tucked mine away and never use it, always use the steel blade it only takes a few short pulses to get the pie dough to where you want it.

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LucyS added 4 months ago

Nothing to do with shortcrust, which I have not tried in the food processor, but I have found that the plastic blade can be great for other types of dough that require lots of mixing - I often use mine to make gougeres. While it might not work for pie dough, don't discount it yet!

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a Whole Foods Market Customer added 4 months ago

I have used both. The steel blade gives me better results.

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Cynthia is a trusted source on Bread/Baking.

added 4 months ago

The best result may come from using the paddle attachment on a KithenAid mixer. Granted, short dough is very forgiving because of its high ratio of buttter; nonetheless, the more it is mixed at higher rates of speed, the softer that butter becomes, resulting in a dough that is not unlike bubble gum. It is going to need to be chilled before rolling/shaping, but the time may be reduced and the texture less compromised by using a mixer rather than a food processor.

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Joanne Chang is the pastry chef/owner of Flour Bakery+Cafe and chef/co-owner of Myers+Chang in Boston.

added 4 months ago

Agree w Cynthia! We use only paddle in a mixer for our doughs and haven't used a food processor before. Paddle gives you more control of butter we find.

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