Pie crust edges


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hey everyone, my recipe for pie crust is:

1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 stick butter
2-4 tablespoons buttermilk

i’ve been making pies forever but my edges never hold shape, like the crimped design. my crust does not shrink or fall but i can’t get the design to stay put, it ends up just turning into a perfect circle instead of pretty crimped edges.
any tips for this?
 
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Jul 11, 2021
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Try reducing fat and liquid, and changing the fat to a combination of butter + lard or butter + vegetable shortening.
 
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I know this is an old post but crust can or can not be very finicky.
In the process of perfecting my own I have scoured the whole internet for recipes.
Your recipe is quite a standard butter crust used by many from famous to amateur bakers.
Even Rose Levy Beranbaum uses similar with a reduction in flour, not other ingredients.
I feel if you reduce butter you inadvertently have increased flour -- that will risk a
sandy dough texture. You know like accidently breathing in sawdust. That was a big
fault in my otherwise tasty dough in the thick areas.

I have mixed lard and butter, which is fine, but my guess is the salt proportion is incorrect.
All butter dough is most delicious and lard is great for a savory recipe.
Your recipe is 50% of that standard recipe used by many except for the salt:

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 lb COLD unsalted butter (1 sticks)

I had an idea to increase the salt because it is very tasty sea salt and also my other attempts
used SALTED butter. I have a feeling that when extra salt is added to the dough and not already
a part of the butter which protects the dough from water absorption (fat repells water) -- the free
floating extra salt will absorb more water and make your dough drier..That's what happened to
my dough. When I rolled it out it looked like a dried up river bed. I thought it happened because
I had a sad thought. Your feelings will also affect the dough so have loving thoughts!

Now I used unsalted kerrygold the silver foil instead of gold foil, just in case..
And keep the 1/2 tsp. of salt exact by weight. For your recipe it should be 1/4 salt since it's scaled down.

Do everything by weight so you can scale up or scale down very precisely.
You can get a scale that measures with .01 accuracy. for your finer proportions like 1/2 teaspoons.
I was able to scale up a test pie very accurately --even the round toffee that I made for the pie
bottom. Using my favorite formula. A= πr2 -- Pie R square!
 

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