American-style pie dough—cutting fat like butter, shortening, or lard into flour, then adding water—comes with a lot of don’ts: Don’t let the fat melt. Don’t use room-temp or even just-cold water (it has to be ice cold) and don’t use too much of it. Don’t overwork the dough. Did I mention, don’t let the fat melt? Seriously, don’t, that’s so important!
These rules become engrained, eventually, but for most of my life, they scared me away from pastry. Then, a few years ago, while working as a middle-of-the-night baker, I was introduced to pie dough’s laissez-faire French cousin: the fraisage method.
At the bakery, we likened it to a cat kneading a blanket, stretching its paws and claws outward, again and again. In this case, you are the cat. The blanket is shortcrust pastry dough. And instead of worrying about the butter staying in pea-sized pieces and not melting, you, well, don’t worry:
Make the dough in a food processor by pulsing together flour, salt, and butter pieces. Add ice water, splash by splash, until a dough just forms. Dump onto a lightly floured work surface, then smear outward with the heels of your hands. Aim for shallow strokes, pushing forward a small amount of dough—figure a couple tablespoons.
In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child is all about the fraisage. She describes the motion as a way “to ensure an even blending of fat and flour.” So why, exactly, is this good thing? Doesn’t it go against all American-style-pie-dough rules? It does. But it also works—producing a different but just as indispensable pastry. Instead of the butter being cut into bits and bobs, which bounce here and there, it is spread into thin, long streaks. When these melt in the oven, they produce steam, creating a crust that is flaky and crumbly, crunchy and tender.
Fraisage anytime you’re making pâte brisée and pâte sucrée—so, any kind of tart or quiche—or if you’re making a free-form pie like a galette. These recipes are a perfect place to start:
Have you ever tried the fraisage method? Tell us about the recipe in the comments below!
Written by: Emma Laperruque
Popular on Food52
9 Comments
This is a request for information about pie doughs/pastry to the expert and knowledgable chefs in the Food 52 world. After years of abysmal failure at making any kind of pie crust, I had a series of epiphanies (from reading and testing) that led me to have ONE successful method for flaky crust and ONE successful method for what I call crumbly (as opposed to flaky.) And ONE successful method for puff pastry (a subset, I guess, of flaky.) Now when I bake pies, I use my tried and true methods rather than the one(s) given in the recipe. MY QUESTION: how do I recognize, from the recipe alone, whether the crust is in the flaky category (the American pie dough?) or in the "crumbly" category n -- "tart dough?" , so I can use my own method, which is foolproof (for me.) And, a related question: which category is pate brisee? Which one is pate sucree? Is "tart dough" always the crumbly one? I have tried to recognize which is which; usually, if there is an egg involved, I assume it's crumbly. If it's only flour, fat and water I assume it's flaky. So a plea to you experts out there to help me understand. Thank you!!
Join The Conversation