Four & Twenty Blackbirds' All-Butter Pie Crust

If you're gonna be making a big batch of something for an event, don't use a recipe you haven't worked with before! At the very least, make a test/practice batch a day (or more) before you do the "real thing"

Also the notes say this is not the recipe to use for lattice. My daughter made her first solo pie with this and it was amazing.

Bob sorry about your luck. Soupy pie crust is a mystery by me. I can maybe give you a few pieces of advice. "Did I let the butter get too warm" is definitely a red flag. You must keep the butter COLD. If it has become room temperature, you will not have good results. You literally want small chunks of cold butter in the dough that you will see when you roll it out. I cut up my cold butter and then stick the cut up pieces into the freezer and pull it back out right after I've measured my dry ingredients and mixed up the water/cider/ice mixture. I am also wondering if you dumped in the entire amount of ice/water/cider mixture. That mixture is really meant as a guideline. And the ice is there just to keep the water & cider cold - you should still have a fair amount of ice still left after you've used the water/cider mixture. And you have to add the mixture sparingly and a little at a time into your dough so that you add just enough to combine without making the dough wet. I almost always have leftover liquid that I did not use. And finally, while you probably can mix this in the food processor, the directions here say to use a bench scraper. You may think it seems weird at first, but just get yourself 2 bench scrapers (don't even need the pastry cutter - just use the bench scrapers) and save yourself having to drag out and clean your food processor. You literally dump the dry ingredients onto your counter and then holding a scraper in each hand, scoop and chop the butter and flour together, then slowly add in the liquid a little at time until it reaches the point where you can work it with your hands. Keeping things cold is the key. I sometimes even put some ice packs on my counter for a little while to chill my counter down (just make sure it is dry before you start working). Also, mix up the water/cider/ice mixture right before you get started and pop that into the fridge or freezer (you really don't want to take any time for the butter to cool off while you're doing something else). And you can even put your flour in the freezer too.

Don't fret over your first try. It is a shame to have wasted the ingredients, but just give it another try. Keep your ingredients cold, make sure you keep some of the butter chunks in there, and mix in liquids just enough to make it workable, and don't over handle it. Once you get the hang of it, you'll see it really is pretty simple to make your own crust. Personally I've made this crust recipe a few times and don't care for it (although others here apparently like it). You may want to try a part butter, part shortening crust. Good luck! Let us know how your second attempt worked out.

Bob - You may want to try this recipe. I like it (actually the Pumpkin Pie recipe there is fantastic as well), and you may find the step by step instructions with photos a lot more helpful. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2015/07/01/baking-basics-homemade-buttery-flaky-pie-crust/

Thank you!

I baked this dough using a GF flour mix and it turned out quite nicely. The only thing I did differently was when I rolled out the dough, I sandwiched the disc between two pieces of parchment paper. Otherwise the dough will stick to any surface you are working on.

Love your way of thinking w the Lard... Now that's alot of love to all recipes. Could you by chance e mail me this hun please. I would so appreciate it. This sounded like my grandmother's pie crust exactly.