master-cooks | Butter Vs Shortening: Christina Tosi Weighs In On What's Best For Pie Crust

In the culinary debate over whether butter or shortening makes the best pie crust, renowned pastry chef Christina Tosi offers insightful perspectives. Butter, with its rich flavor and ability to create flaky layers, is often favored for its taste and texture in pie crusts. Its water content steams during baking, contributing to a light, airy crust. However, butter can be challenging to work with due to its lower melting point, requiring precision and care to maintain a tender, flaky result. On the other hand, shortening is praised for its consistency and higher melting point, which makes it easier to handle and manipulate, particularly in warmer environments. Shortening produces a tender crust due to its ability to coat flour proteins, inhibiting gluten formation. While it lacks the pronounced flavor of butter, it delivers a reliable texture that some bakers prefer. Tosi highlights the importance of balancing flavor and functionality. She suggests that a blend of both fats can offer the best of both worlds: butter for flavor and shortening for texture and handling. Ultimately, the choice between butter and shortening depends on personal preference and the desired outcome, with each fat offering unique advantages in crafting the perfect pie crust.

Baking pie crusts with butter

While we typically associate the term "shortening" with vegetable shortening, it's important to note that butter is also a form of shortening. In the context of baking, "shortening" refers to any fat that creates a "short" texture in dough, which is a traditional term for flaky. Compared to other shortenings like vegetable shortening or lard, butter is less effective at producing a flaky crust. This is due to the fact that butter, derived from milk fat in cream, contains about 80% fat, while shortening and lard are composed of 100% fat. However, butter offers a unique advantage: its flavor.

Christina Tosi states, "I go all butter if it will lend itself to flavor," highlighting rich dishes such as peanut butter pie and quiche as excellent examples. Butter adds a deep flavor to pie crusts and enhances the taste of other rich ingredients like chocolate and spices. Additionally, butter has a small amount of milk solids that caramelize during baking, resulting in pie crusts that tend to brown more beautifully than those made with shortening. For the best results with a butter-based crust, consider the fat content. The fat percentage is a crucial factor in butter, and a higher fat content contributes to a flakier pie crust.

Baking pie crusts with vegetable shortening

Christina Tosi prefers using shortening in her pie crusts for a "fruitier" result, highlighting vibrant flavors like sour cherry. This choice is effective because vegetable shortening is a neutral fat, lacking any distinct flavor. This makes it ideal for light, fresh tastes like fruit, which could be overshadowed by the richness of butter. However, it's important to note that vegetable shortening does not contribute any flavor to the crust.

Additionally, vegetable shortening contributes to a flakier crust compared to butter. Since vegetable shortening is simply hydrogenated vegetable oil and is composed entirely of fat, it plays a crucial role in pie crusts by preventing gluten development. While gluten is beneficial for bread, it can ruin pie crusts by making them chewy. Being 100% fat, shortening is also more stable than butter and can effectively trap air pockets. This is why shortening is key for achieving fluffy frosting and creates air gaps that enhance the flakiness of the crust. While you may sacrifice some flavor, you gain in texture. If you're torn between the two, you can always take Tosi's suggestion and use a 50-50 blend.

Butter Vs Shortening: Christina Tosi Weighs In On What's Best For Pie Crust

Baking pie crusts with butter

Baking pie crusts with vegetable shortening

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